| DE VALERA DEFENDS HONOR FOR HITLER Says Call on Reich Envoy to Mourn the Fuehrer Followed ‘Established Practice’ By HUGH SMITH - By Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. DUBLIN, July 19 — No act of Prime Minister Eamon de Valera's public life has evoked more world- wide criticism comment than his call upon the German Minister to Dublin to express his condolences upon the reported death of Adolf Hitler. In many places it was de- scribed as a first-class blunder. For the first time since that call, Mr. de Valera in the Dail Eireann [Parliament] here tonight defend- ed his action, for which he was trenchantly criticized by Deputy James Dillon. “Deputy Dillon,” Mr. de Valera began, ‘referred to the German Minister here as a representative of Nazism. I say that is not so. It would be an intolerable situa- "tion if by the fact of receiving a foreign representative we should ‘appear to be favoring the policy of his government, “I£ must be clearly understood that when a representative of a foreign state comes here he comes as a representative of his people and his nation, and not of a partic- ular government, That does not imply approval or disapproval of the policy of his state. The Ger- man Minister here then was in the same position as his predecessor— a representative of the German nation. An “Established Practice” “My visit to the German Min- ‘ister was taken in accordance with procedure and practice that has ‘been established here and also is universal,” Mr. de Valera declared. “That act of courtesy must not be taken ag involving any question of approval or disapproval of the policy pursued in the state he rep- resented.” “That,” continued the Prime Minister, “was well known, but be- cause that fact did not please the propagandists who had been try- ing to malign us because of our taking up an attitude similar to that of Switzerland and other neu- tral countries, they tried to mis- represent it. There was not much publicity given the fact that I came here to ask the Dail to adjourn on the death of President Roosevelt. “We do not wait until we get official notification of the death of the head of a state. We naturally assume that when the death of the head of a state is reported, it is true. We delay sufficiently long to make sure there is no fundamental mistake, but we assume that when it is reported generally that the head of a state is dead that that report is correct and we do the necessary courtesies, Cites Honor for Roosevelt “When we adjourned the Dail as a particular mark of respect to the American nation,” Mr. de Valera said, “and when the flags were at half staff in our city from the moment we heard of the death of the President of the United States until his burial, there was very lit- tlee publicity given it, “I want to say that I did what I did as my duty, and I was quite well aware when I was doing it that is was capable of being mis- represented,” he declared.” “To do anything else would bring us into absolute contempt. My doing that does not suggest or imply judg- ment of any kind.” Mr. de Valera then challenged Deputy Dillon to name the member of his Cabinet whom he alleged had Nazi sympathies. Mr. Dillon promptly named Frank Aiken, now Minister of Finance but Minister in charge of censorship during the European war. Stoutly defending Mr. Aiken, Mr, de Valera said that because Mr. Aiken did his duty as a censor because he was impartial in his work and did not allow propa- ganda from either side, to avoid being accused of having leanings in certain directions. The mem- berg of his Cabinet, Prime Minister de Valera added, were for neither one side nor the other but were pro-Irish. The New York Times Published: July 20, 1945 |
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