22 SEPTEMBER 1923, Page 2

It has been suggested that the admission of the Irish

Free State to the Assembly of the League of Nations may mean that Mr. Cosgrave wants to refer the dispute about the Ulster boundary to the League. He has been credited with the intention of offering the Anglo- Irish Treaty for registration by the League, and it has been supposed that there is some considered policy in all this. An attempt to refer the Ulster boundary question to the League would be to misuse, if not to abuse, the functions of the League. Nobody wants to enlarge the usefulness of the League more than we do, but it is obvious that the competence of the League applies to international affairs and not to the affairs of separate units within a single Kingdom. Mr. Cosgrave would not be acting as a good European if he invoked a stormy false issue merely for the sake of gaining publicity for the interests of the Free State. We sincerely hope that the Ulster boundary question will be settled amicably, but it cannot be settled by the League to the advantage either of the League itself or of the Free State.