Breakaway states
SIR – After the American Civil War, the US Supreme Court ruled that under the Constitution secession was, and always had been, illegal. Thus the federal government had acted within the law when it used force to oppose the secession of the southern states.
It would appear that Catalonia has acted unconstitutionally when making its unilateral declaration of independence and that the Spanish government would be acting legally in sacking its president and ministers and taking control of Catalan institutions.
The 27 members of the EU, and Britain if it decides to rejoin, should be clear about what the drive towards a United States of Europe entails. If asked to agree the constitution for the new state, they may wish to avoid the omission from the US Constitution – which provided the procedure for a new state to join the Union, but no mechanism for leaving it.
Without a mechanism for leaving, the government of a United States of Europe would have the legal right to sack any regional government that unilaterally declared independence and take control of its institutions.
ND H Park es
Swansea
SIR – Mr Johnson’s new-found praise for Balfour grates with what he wrote in his book on Churchill, in which he called it “an exquisite piece of Foreign Office fudgerama”.
The declaration was just that.
Its author, Arthur Balfour, made it clear that there was no intention of consulting the indigenous population of Palestine, which at the time of the declaration was 90 per cent Arab. The promises to Arabs were ignored or broken.
Mr Johnson rightly pushes for an independent sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines. The reality on the ground is that Israel, the occupying power, is doing everything to prevent this. The Israeli prime minister has stated that Jerusalem will never be shared, and has backed the effective annexation of an expanded Jerusalem, while planning to deprive 120,000 Palestinian Jerusalem natives of their right to vote. If Mr Johnson is serious, he cannot fudge the challenge of ending this 50-year-old occupation. Chris Doyle
Director, Council for Arab-british Understanding
London EC4