§ 32. Colonel HOWARD-BURYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the amount of compensation to ex-British civil servants in Ireland, under Article 10 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, was guaranteed by the Government in the event of the Free State Government not honouring their agreement to pay under Article 10?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLHis Majesty's Government in Great Britain accepted responsibility at the time of the Treaty for seeing that proper compensation would be paid under Article X. It was expressly stated on the 16th July, 1923, by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. Ormsby-Gore) in reply to the hon. and learned Member for York, now Lord Danesfort, that His Majesty's Government could not regard it as unreasonable that in these cases bonus should be taken into account in the same manner as if the officers were retiring from the British Civil Service. The Government's view has throughout been that their position should be neither better nor worse in this matter than if their status had remained unaltered.
§ Colonel HOWARD-BURYWas there not a definite agreement between the two Governments guaranteeing them certain rights, and are those rights to be taken away by retrospective legislation?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThat is raising a somewhat larger question. I am strongly of opinion that equity and fair dealing require that they should be treated neither better nor worse than the English civil servant.
§ Colonel HOWARD-BURYWere not promises made to them, and are they all to be put on one side?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThere is no question of putting promises on one side, but of the proper interpretation of the intentions of the Government.