HEAVY BLOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 266, 9 November 1932, Page 7

HEAVY BLOW.

IRISH DUTIES RISE.

Britain Applies Screw to Gain Annuities. IRISH ELECTION URGED. (United P.A.-Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 1.30 p.tn.) • LONDON, November 8. Mr. J. H. Thomas, Dominions Secretary, moving the approval of the new Irish duties of 40 per cent on live stock, i said the • Government reluctantly imposed the first series of Irish duties owing to Mr. de- Valera's refusal to pay £5,000,000 a year of land annuities due to the British taxpayer. Receipts to date showed that Britain would not receive the full £5,000,000, therefore other means had to be 'found. The Free State, as was inevitable, had retaliated by duties which had unquestionably affected Britain's Irish trade in coal and other commodities and caused unemployment here. No other course was available than these new dutiee. Even at this stage they had not closed the door to a settlement, but felt that this was the only action they could honourably adopt. Mr. Morgan Jones (Lab., Glamorgan) regretted the continuation of the AngloIrish economic war, which was causing both sides to suffer. "As an exceptional measure could we not accept a chairman from outside the Empire for an arbitrational tribunal to which the Free State would be willing to consent," he asked. Mr. Thomas recalled that by a Geneva agreement Empire disputes must be settled by Empire tribunals. The resolution applying the duties was carried by 250 votes to 37. There was a big rush of cattle from the Free State to Ulster to escape tho duties payable at midnight. Special truck trains were loaded to capacity. Hundreds of other cattle were hurriediy driven over the border and left to graze in Ulster fields. Even supporters of Mr. de Valera admit that the new tariff of 40 per cent the system of bounties tvhereby the Government is seeking to keep the export trade of cattle alive. Cattle will have to be sold at giveaway prices in the Free State, probably 40 per cent below the British levels. The "Irish Times" calls on Mr. de Valera to have .a general election without delay. Owing to the duties, the sailings of five cattle boats from Dublin for England have been cancelled, although there were 2000 head aboard after a hurried nocturnal loading. 1

NEW GOVERNOR.

Rumoured Appointment in Irish Free State. "xg ai , SIGNATORY OF TREATY. (Received 11 a.m.) . , LONDON, November 8. It is understood that Mr. Robert Barton, who wae a signatory of the AngloIrish Treaty, will be chosen to succeed Mr. James O'Neill as Governor of the Irish Free State. A farmer of County Wicklow, Robert Childers Barton, who is aged 51, was educated at Rugby and Oxford. His first taste of public life was as chairman of the Wicklow County Council. In 1918 he wae elected as a Sinn Feiner for West Wicklow, and from 1921-23 was member of the Dail for Kildare and Wicklow, being at one stage Secretary for Economic Affairs. He was-an Irish peace delegate to the London Conference in 1921. He was arrested for a political speech in February, 1919, escaped from Mountjoy. Prison a month later, and was rearrested early in 1920, when he wae sentenced to 10 years' penal servitude, of which seven years were remitted.