I thank the Minister. We contribute to the Imperial Mycological Institute a sum of £150 a year. We contribute to the Imperial Institute of Entomology £50 a year. We further contribute various sums to the Imperial Bureau of Soil Science, to the Imperial Bureau of Animal Nutrition, to the Imperial Bureau of Animal. Health, to the Imperial Bureau of Animal Genetics, to the Imperial Bureau of Agricultural Parasitology, to the Imperial Bureau of Plant Genetics and to the Imperial Bureau of Fruit Production. I direct the attention of the House to that fact because under sub-head I of the Oireachtas Vote we contribute to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Saorstát Eireann Group. In addition to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, there is a Union known as the Imperial Parliamentary Union which provides a forum at which representatives of all Parties of the Parliaments of the Dominions meet and discuss matters of common constitutional interests, as the experts of the Dominions meet in the institutes referred to in the Agricultural Vote, for the discussion of technical questions of common interest. Last year, as a delegate from the Saorstát Eireann Branch of the Imperial Parliamentary Union, I attended a conference in London and there met distinguished Irishmen from Australia representing the various Governments of Australia, distinguished Irishmen and New Zealanders representing New Zealand, with others from New Zealand who had no connection with this country, distinguished Irish-Canadians representing Canada with French-Canadians and English-Canadians—in fact, representatives of all the sovereign Governments of the Nations of the Commonwealth.
There, matters of mutual interest were discussed. What struck me particularly was that matters peculiarly affecting the interests of this country received from those statesmen from all parts of the Commonwealth a consideration that was clearly indicative of their affection for the country to which they looked as the mother country—Ireland. It was peculiarly striking that in matters arising in the ordinary course of our deliberations, they specially referred to Irish affairs and when our attitude on certain matters clashed diametrically with the attitude of British Cabinet Ministers, I personally found that not infrequently the representatives of the Dominions ranged themselves on my side of the discussion and warmly supported the Irish side of the question which on any given occasion I had the privilege to put forward. I do not want for a single moment to suggest that I was the only delegate there. Deputy Doctor Rowlette was there, and he spoke frequently and with great effect from the Irish point of view. Senator Westropp Bennett was there. Senator O'Hanlon was there and several other Senators and Deputies represented Ireland on that occasion. A contribution is made every year by each member of that Association to the joint fund in order to maintain a publication which contains a resume of the important Parliamentary proceedings that take place each month in the various Parliaments of the several Dominions. That publication circulates through Great Britain and the other sovereign States of the Commonwealth, and keeps constantly before the Governments of the Commonwealth the views expressed by President de Valera and the several Ministers of the Crown in this country from an extreme Irish point of view—President de Valera's point of view—on all constitutional questions and on any other questions that arise from time to time in this House.
I have a strong feeling that it is useful that the Irish Government's point of view should be circulated amongst the other Governments of the Commonwealth on all topics of that character without regard to what Party actually forms the Government of this country at any given time. From time to time our State might find itself in a conflict of interest with Great Britain, Canada or New Zealand and I should like a statement of our side of the case to circulate freely amongst our colleagues in the Commonwealth so that we might rest assured that it was brought under the attention of interested colleagues who, from my experience of them, if they had any bias whatever, had a bias in favour of this country, and were anxious to hear our side of the case in order that they could espouse the cause of this country. To enable us to make that contribution, it was the practice of the late Government to make an annual grant similar to the grant made to the Inter-Parliamentary Union for which provision is made in the Oireachtas Estimate this year.
It is to be borne in mind that in some of the Parliaments of the other several States there are a number of wealthy members who are in a position to put up substantial subscriptions themselves towards meeting the expenses of an organisation of that kind. In this country we have not got a large number of wealthy men in public life, and we cannot afford to contribute the sum necessary to maintain this organisation. We are asking the present Government to continue the contribution to the fund of our branch that the late Government gave and to give a subscription similar to what they gave to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The present Government refuses to do so on the ground, apparently, that President de Valera could not see any reason for authorising a contribution of public moneys to a Union described as an Imperial Parliamentary Union. But what consistency is there in such an attitude when we discover that his objection to a subscription to an imperial institution of that kind stops when the institution ceases to discuss matters of general interest and concentrates on separate interests. We contribute to nine separate institutions of that kind.
