The Annuities and the Oath The fate that dogs relationships
between Great Britain and Ireland has ordained that even the annuities dispute shall not be a clear-cut issue. Both sides are prepared for arbitration but not for the same tribunal or the same terms of reference. It is not to be assumed that on the former point Mr. de Valera is necessarily in the wrong. There is no intrinsic reason why his desire for a tribunal including one or two non-British members should not be met, particularly if in return he would drop his proposal to couple various other unspecified financial questions with the annuities dispute. As things arc the British Government is driven to taking retaliatory measures against the Free State in a dispute in which each side claims to be in the right and no impartial authority has decided between them. Since the Government itself has to pay the bondholders the interest due on July 1st, it is justified in trying to recover from the Free State, but it remains to be seen how far the measures contemplated will meet the case. A tax on imports from Ireland will yield nothing in so far as it keeps them out, and the tax on goods coming in despite a duty usually falls in the end on the consumer. As for the Oath, the Senate having now passed the Bill in a form Mr. de Valera will not consider, the question is likely to lie dormant for the eighteen months that must elapse before the measure can be passed into law by the Dail without the Senate's concurrence. The alternative is an immediate elec- tion, but Fianna Fail seems at present indisposed for that.
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