TIDE TURNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 269, 12 November 1937, Page 3

TIDE TURNS.

IRISHMEN COMING HOME.

BETTER POSITIONS OFFERIMG

Up to a decade ago, when the tide of J emigration from Ireland was flowing j across the Atlantic to the United States, flowery orators spoke of America as the "greater Ireland beyond the seas." says the Dublin correspondent of the "New York Times. *' Now the tide has turned and thousands of young Irish men and women are emigrating to Britain. Instead of a "greater Ireland beyond the seas," the country will soon have a "greater Ireland across the Channel." This drift of the young people from rural Ireland to Britain began in 1932, I when some 3278 Free State nationals I found work there. In 1933 the figure 1 lose to 9.">17. By 1934 it had almost ; doubled, and it is estimated that last ! year nearlv .">O.OOO young Irish boys and i girls went to settle in England. Just 'as the first emigrants who made good in the I'nited States sent back for their ! brothers, sisters or other relatives, the • new emigrants to Britain have been taking over their unemployed kin to find work in England. They also send money home. Critics of Mr. de Valera's Government are of course endeavouring to make much political capital out of this big , increase in emigration. They contend I conditions in agriculture have been • made so much worse by the Government's policy that the young people j have been obliged to leave the land and find a living elsewhere. Government spokesmen admit that some ">2.000 people have emigrated during the four years 1932 .but i>oint out that 240.000 people emigrated from the Free State during tlie ten years of the Cosgrave Administration. ' They further justify themselves by claiming that some "."i.OOO more people have been given work in the new industries established since Fianna Fail took office. The truth of the matter is that the boom in British industrial conditions, as the result of the rearmament programme. and the chance for city life, have proved an irresistible magnet for Free State vouth.