There is a specific matter which I want to raise on this Supplementary Estimate without opening a general debate. Part of this money is designed for the promotion of what are described as cultural relations with other nations. One of the purposes, I take it, is to improve relations with members of the Commonwealth of Nations, particularly in regard to the fundamental kind of belief that we all share in the sphere of politics and philosophy. A number of international Parliamentary associations exist in the world, amongst them the Parliamentary Association to which members of the Parliaments of the Commonwealth belong, to which the Parliaments of those dependencies of the British Empire which are believed to be graduating to independence are allowed to belong, and with which the Congress of the United States of America has, in the last few years, chosen to associate itself, not by direct membership, but by a degree of association which has resulted in meetings in Washington, where they have been the hosts of the members of the Parliamentary Association, and in Canada and Australia, where the Parliamentary Association has entertained the Congress.
This Parliament belonged to that body for many years, but to maintain its membership it was necessary to make an annual contribution and, inasmuch as the members of this House are none of them rich men, it was not feasible to raise the contribution that is customary in association of this kind by voluntary subscription as it is possible to do in other Parliaments where there are some very rich Deputies or Senators who may contribute liberally to the fund. And so, in regard to the Inter-Parliamentary Association, which is another body, and certain analogous bodies, the Government made an annual grant, but when the present Government came in, in so far as the Parliamentary Association is concerned, that grant stopped, and we were told the reason it stopped was that the English branch called itself the Empire Parliamentary Association.
I do not know whether it was explained to the Taoiseach adequately or not that the general question as to whether the incorporation of the word "Empire" into such a body is a matter which engaged the attention of many and it was generally agreed, I think, on the part of Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Great Britain, that it would be more appropriately called The Commonwealth of Nations' Parliamentary Association, but their only difficulty was that Australia called it The Commonwealth of Parliamentary Association, because they spoke to the Commonwealth of Australia, and it was hard to evolve a title without creating confusion. It is right for the House to know that, in fact, each national association is independent of all its associates but, as a convenient piece of machinery, the secretariat of the British Parliamentary Association had habitually acted as a clearing house for the correspondence between all the various members and for the distribution of a journal which contains broad pictures of the proceedings in each of the Parliaments that belong to it.
Very largely in order to spare the susceptibilities of the Taoiseach and his colleagues, the Irish branch eliminated the word "Empire" from the title, pending action by all the other branches in choosing a new form. We said that in common with South Africa and, I think, with Canada, we thought the title "Empire Parliamentary Association" was manifestly wrong and mistaken because the word "Empire" now belonged to Great Britain and her imperial dependencies and had no relation at all to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and, at that time, Newfoundland. Everyone agreed that the title was anachronistic.
I understand there is to be a meeting of all the associations and, I think, certain representatives of the Congress of the United States in New Zealand this autumn and, I am informed, one of the matters to be brought under consideration there is an amendment of the title. On the one hand you do not want to slap people across the face in Great Britain to whom the old imperial concept has a certain sentimental attachment. This is a time when the Empire of India is being deliberately, by the voluntary act of the British Parliament, converted into something very different, and it is not an occasion on which you want to rub peoples' noses in the fact that this is a changing world.
But they have no feeling about it at all. The other members of the Commonwealth have no desire to retain it. When the Taoiseach gets up in his hat and says by implication: "My heart twitters at the thought of finding some little Imperial haven where I can find refuge," my inclination is to spit in his eye and tell him to behave himself. At least, I am not an Imperialist abroad and a Gael at home, like some people I know. The fact is that I believe Deputies on all sides of the House feel the same way about this business. We are anxious to collaborate in any association of democratic parliaments because we believe that there are forces abroad in the world anxious to destroy Parliamentary democracies and the more independent and sovereign Parliaments associate through their members, the better it is for the Parliamentary system of government and the better it is for the several countries that these Parliaments govern.
I cannot leave the point without directing the Taoiseach's attention to the fact that the position adopted by him has not even the virtue of consistency, because annually his Government sponsor Estimates in this House for subscriptions to the Imperial Institute of Ethnology, the Imperial Agricultural Research Station, and others. There are five or seven imperial institutes mentioned by name in the Estimate for Agriculture every year for which we appropriate money to pay our membership fee. I think the Government are perfectly right to do that. I do not think anybody regards that as any sort of reflection on the Constitutional status of this country. What does really matter is that you find there is something useful to be done, something outside the sphere of purely utilitarian considerations, in an association providing opportunities for Englishmen, Irishmen, Australians, Canadians and South Africans to sit down together, talk things over, to meet and to be friendly with one another, even if they can agree about nothing.
The Taoiseach may say: "What would the boys say if I were to provide money for an Empire organisation? Leave out the word `Empire' or Deputy So-and-So will go for me. Deputy Ó Briain will go half mad if I ask him to vote for it".
