The Department of External Affairs

The Department of External Affairs is the one Department of the State for which there was no equivalent in the Dublin machinery of administration under the British régime. It had therefore to be built up from the foundations, and the task has of necessity been a slow one. Greater progress is, however, being made each year in all the branches of the Department, and in a few years there should emerge an organisation adequate to the needs of the country. Attacks have been made against the Department from time to time on the ground of its cost, but it should be noted that the Irish Department costs less than any other Department of Foreign Affairs in the world.

The work of the Department has progressed along two channels - our relations with Great Britain and the other States of the Commonwealth, and our relations with the other principal States of the world. The growing spirit of liberalism and democracy in Great Britain has facilitated the task of putting our relations with that country on a proper basis. The English people are realising that the association of the Members of the Commonwealth can endure only if their relations with each other are founded on the most complete co-equality. It has been pointed out to the different British Governments which have succeeded each other in the past few years that the development of friendly relations between our two countries depended almost wholly on the complete elimination of those forms and appearances of control which remained in the relations between the Irish Free State and Great Britain, just as they remained between Canada and Great Britain. By negotiation and constant reiteration of our claims we have succeeded in eliminating almost all the traces of inequality between us. The process is still going on, and it may well be possible to announce at the next Annual Convention that the relationship of complete co- equality has been finally realised in form as well as in fact. The Imperial Conferences of 1929 and 1930 revealed the difficulties and indicated the remedies to be taken. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council still stands in the way. It is the only British institution which claims to exercise authority within our borders. That claim is finally and absolutely rejected by this State. There is no desire in this country to persecute the people whom the appeal to the Judicial Committee is supposed to protect, and its continued existence at the present moment is a serious obstacle in the way of more friendly relations with Great Britain.

The visit of the Dominion Prime Ministers to this country last autumn has proved of the greatest possible help in the development of friendly relations with the Members of the Commonwealth. The fostering of our relations with the other Members of the Commonwealth is receiving the constant and earnest attention of the Department.

Direct diplomatic relations have been established with the Vatican, the United States, France and Germany, and relations of a semi-diplomatic character exist with several other important States.

The external trade of the State is very largely done with Great Britain, our nearest neighbour. There are possibilities of considerable extension in this trade, and through the High Commissioner in London the Department is giving very considerable aid to the Departments principally interested in the development of trade with Great Britain. Since in some respects the modern world has forced the nations to become like great business enterprises, advertisement has become a normal necessity, and the principal function of the Department in the external trade of the country is accordingly that of the advertiser. Some of the most prosperous concerns in the State are developing a trade which extends far beyond the British market. This development has imposed upon the Department the obligation of securing fair treatment for our exporters by various agreements with some twenty countries. Details of these agreements will be published soon in a Treaty Series which is being prepared for presentation to the Oireachtas, and which will be available for the general public. The aim of the Department is not merely to increase trade with Great Britain, but to develop trade relations with as many other countries as can be persuaded to buy Irish goods.

A further development of the Consular Service, especially in America, is contemplated. The Consul-General in New York and the Vice-Consul in Boston can cope only with a very small portion of the work which should be done for Irish nationals in that country. Irish nationals still provide a very large proportion of the work of the British Consular Service in America. The work mainly concerns estate cases, compensation in employment, authentication of documents for use in the home Courts, and the granting of visas and passports. The State is in receipt of a considerable revenue from the passport work, and when the entire interests of Irish nationals are in the hands of Irish Consuls the increase in revenue should still far exceed the cost of all Irish official establishments in the United States.

Since the election of the Irish Free State to membership of the League Council, the work of the League has become of greater import to the State, and it seems expedient to give a somewhat detailed account of its present activities in this place.