I move:—
Go ndeontar suim Bhreise ná raghaidh thar £1,745 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1939, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Gnóthaí Eachtracha, agus Seirbhísí áirithe atá fé riaradh na hOifige sin (Uimh. 16 de 1924).
That a Supplementary sum not exceeding £1,745 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1939, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for External Affairs, and of certain Services administered by that Office (No. 16 of 1924).
This Supplementary Estimate calls for provision being made under four new sub-heads. I propose to deal with these in order.
Sub-head A (7)—Expenses of withdrawal of volunteers of Irish nationality from Spain. The sum of £400 provided for under sub-head A (7) is required to meet the cost of withdrawing a number of volunteers of Irish nationality from Spain, in accordance with arrangements made, towards the end of last year, by the Non-Intervention Committee. As a member of the Non - Intervention Committee, we agreed to the withdrawal plan drawn up by the committee last July. The plan embodied a scheme whereby combatants of other than Spanish nationality engaged on one side or the other in the Spanish civil conflict would be gradually withdrawn from Spain. It was found impossible to put the withdrawal plan into operation in the exact form in which it had been approved by the committee; but, when a limited arrangement on similar lines was put into operation at the end of last year, we agreed to fall in with it so far as volunteers of Irish nationality who had left this country for Spain after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, were concerned. Under this arrangement, we became responsible for the cost of transferring the men concerned from the Spanish frontier to this country. The cost is estimated at about £10 per man. So far, 18 volunteers have been returned to this country under the scheme, and the total number to be transferred is not expected to exceed 30.
Sub - head A (8) — Contribution towards the Expenses of the Inter-Governmental Committee on the Austro-German Refugee Question. The sum of £195 provided for in sub-head A (8) is required to meet our contribution towards the expenses of the Inter-Governmental Committee on Austro-German Refugees. The committee owes its existence to the conference which met at Evian last summer, on the invitation of the United States Secretary of State, to discuss ways and means of dealing with the refugee problem. Ireland was one of the 30 Governments represented at the conference, which, after a week's deliberation, decided to set up this standing committee, which has its headquarters in London and the Chairman of which is an American, Mr. Rublee. The functions of the committee are to undertake negotiations with the Governments concerned with a view to improving the conditions under which the exodus of refugees from certain countries is taking place, and with a view to developing opportunities for permanent settlement. The work of the Inter-Governmental Committee necessitates a secretarial staff, the cost of which is divided among the Governments represented on the committee on a basis of so many units each, very much as is done in the League of Nations. Our contribution is ten units out of a total of 571 units. In addition to our contribution to the expenses of this committee, provision is made in the present Estimate for our share of the expenses of the Evian Conference itself. Our share of these expenses amounts to 280 Swiss francs, say, £14.
Sub - head A (9)—Contribution towards the Expenses of the International Commission for the Assistance of Child Refugees in Spain. The sum of £2,000 provided for under this sub-head is required to enable the Government to make a contribution to the funds of an international organisation set up for the purpose of relieving the terrible privations which thousands of children in Spain are suffering in consequence of the civil war. The commission is an entirely international body with its headquarters at Geneva. It co-ordinates the work of a number of bodies such as the "Save the Children International Union", the "Friends' Service Council", and other official and voluntary relief organisations concerned with the provision of shelter, food and clothing for children in Spain rendered homeless as a result of the civil conflict in that country. The objects of the commission are exclusively humanitarian. Its work covers the whole of Spain. Reports received in the Department testify to the enormity of its task and the value of the work it is doing. The International Commission carried out its work with the help of a fund to which a large number of Governments (including the Australian, Belgian, Danish, French, British, Italian, New Zealand, Norwegian, South African, and Swedish) have already contributed. The British Government has contributed £60,000; the Australian £2,500, the Swedish £88,000, the United States Government gave a contribution in kind of £50,000 and Canada has, so far, given £2,000. As Deputies will see by the note attached to the Estimate, a first contribution of £1,000 has already been made on behalf of this country out of the Contingency Fund. This amount will be repaid to the Contingency Fund out of the present provision of £2,000. Since this Estimate was framed, the situation in Spain, has, of course, assumed an entirely new aspect. Areas which were previously the centre of war-like operations are now under the control of the Nationalist Government, and food supplies, the lack of which caused the distress which it is the business of the International Commission to relieve, may, therefore, soon be restored to normal. The Estimate provides, however, for a further contribution of £1,000 being made if it should appear that conditions involving further calls on the commission's resources continue to exist.
Sub-head A (10) — Promotion of Cultural Relations with Other Countries. The provision of £150 under sub-head A (10) marks the beginning of an effort to make our national culture more widely known and appreciated abroad, particularly in America. The plans for our participation in this year's New York Fair provide for exhibits explaining our cultural traditions and the results which contemporary efforts to restore a national culture in this country have already achieved. It is proposed to supplement this section of our exhibit at the World's Fair by an arrangement enabling three or four lecturers to visit the United States this year to lecture on different aspects of our national culture, past and present. Consideration is also being given to a further arrangement whereby the works of eminent Irish scholars and writers, such, for example, as the publications of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, would be brought directly under the notice of the American librarians, with a view to the strengthening of the Irish sections in university and other libraries in the United States. The arrangement would provide in each case for the payment of travelling and subsistence expenses on the usual official scale, subject to a certain maximum expenditure. The present Estimate is required to cover the cost, in the current financial year, of an arrangement on these lines in the case of Dr. Seamus Delargy, Hon. Director of the Irish Folklore Commission. One or two other similar arrangements are in contemplation. The effort to be made in the present year is intended to be only a beginning. It is hoped, however, that it will lay the foundations for an organisation for the development of cultural relations between this country and the United States on a permanent footing. The development of such relations should be regarded as one of the most important of a State's external activities. Most Governments devote a considerable amount of money and attention to this kind of work. Apart from other considerations, it tends to promote trade and foster tourist traffic. There are the further advantages in our case that it would tend in time to stimulate higher scholarship here and promote the wider circulation of official publications such as those of the Irish Manuscripts Commission. While it is thus a matter in which the Government is justified in giving a lead, success will depend, in a final analysis, on the degree of effort and support forthcoming from other than official sources.
The total provision required under the four sub-heads is £2,745. Against this total, there is to be set off savings amounting to sub-head B (1) (Salaries, Wages and Allowances) of the Vote for External Affairs for the current financial year. The net supplementary provision required, therefore, is £1,745.
As it is a matter in which Deputies have from time to time evinced a keen interest, I think I should avail of this occasion to refer to our recognition of the Nationalist Government in Spain. As the Deputies will have learned, the Irish Government on Saturday last, the 11th February, recognised General Franco's Government as the Government of Spain. When speaking in this House on the 27th November, 1936, on the question of recognition, I said:
"If you recognise a new Government you should recognise it when there is some clear indication of stability, some clear indication that the Government will be able to speak on behalf of the nation of which it is the Government.... As a prudent rule recognition is not given before there is a fair hope of stability."
After the recent events in Spain, it became apparent that the establishment of General Franco's authority over the whole of Spain was only a question of a short time. Further resistance could not, it appeared to us, affect the result, and further delay in recognition might only tend to encourage the continuance of a vain struggle involving further loss of life. The question we had to ask ourselves was this: Was General Franco's authority now definitely paramount in Spain or was it likely to be so in the immediate future? If we came to the affirmative conclusion, as we did, then our duty was to give immediate recognition. Once he had reached a position of supreme authority or a position which was potentially that, the question of non-intervention was no longer at issue and the de facto Government of Spain acquired a natural right to be recognised in law as the Government of that country.
