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Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 217, 11 June 1935, Page 4

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Conditions in Northern Ireland

Tire people of Northern Ireland are very well governed, well content with the present state of affairs, and just as strong as ever in their determination not to be parted from the United Kingdom, said Mrs. E. Moffat-Clow, of Belfast, a member of the world executive of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, who arrived at Wellington yesterday by the Makura from Sydney. Since she left Ireland last October, Mrs. Moffat-Clow has visited India and Australia, and has just completed a six months’ tour of the Commonwealth. “I am tremendously impressed with these great Dominions, their bigness and their possibilities, and with the virility of the people, particularly the women,” she said. "I think the women are very public-spirited and alive to their responsiblities as citizens. “Of course, I have found that the drinking habits are rather deplorable. So far as Australia is concerned, I think that the liquor problem is a very difficult one, and the position compares rather unfavourably with conditions in the United Kingdom. In Northern Ireland we have a very bright picture to show. Since we got self-government in 1921, we have halved our drink bill and the temperance sentiment is very strong. Also, I think I may say that our religious sentiment is very much in advance of anything. I have seen on my tour. We are really religious people still; much more so than the Australians are.

“Northern Ireland is quiet and peaceful and happy, and we are not in constant fear of Mr. de Valera, as so many people out here seem to imagine.”