EIRE’S RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25589, 2 September 1948, Page 5

EIRE’S RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN

“Never Such A Show Of Friendship” RECORD OF NEW GOVERNMENT (N2. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON. Sept. 1. Reviewing the record of the Costello Government since it displaced Mr de Valera’s administration in Eire seven months ago, the Dublin correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says: “So far the prophets who predicted that industrial and agricultural collapse would follow Mr de Valera’s defeat have been confounded. “Mr Costello’s masterstroke has been the new trade agreement with Britain, which has achieved a stable and guaranteed market for the Irish farmer for the next four years. This agreement has consolidated Mr Costello’s leadership and has made it virtually certain that he will now last the full term of five years. “The agreement has not, however, solved Eire’s domestic difficulties, particularly over the shortage of farm labour and of animal feed. Mechanisation may be one of the solutions to the

problem of labour, but so far too many Irish farmers show themselves reluctant to undertake the capital investment involved.” Commenting on the marked improvement in British-Irish relations since the advent of the Costello Government. the correspondent says: “Never before has there been such a show of friendship between Ireland and Britain. Much of it is genuine and the rest is encouraged by hopes of commercial success. A red carpet is in almost continuous use at the Dublin airport, welcoming important British guests from the Prime Minister downwards. “English tourists are over-running every town and hamlet, and before the year is ended 1.000.000 Britons will have made friends with Irish men and women and, more important, will have left no less than £30,000,000 in Irish shops. That sum takes no account of what has been spent in hotels. It is wealth beyond the dreams of the Irish. “Ironically, the British are paying these millions here for goods made in Britain, and the Irishman is supremely happy because of the handsome profits coming to him with so little effort.”