POLITICS IN IRELAND

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1935, Page 31

POLITICS IN IRELAND

THE RULE OF DE YALERA

TOWN AND COUNTRY

Setting out from Dublin to tour the Midlands, West, and South of Ireland I had in mind some questions on which I wanted light, writes the Irish correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." Has the country, like Dublin, reconciled itself to the indefinite continuance of the economic war? Can the farmer adjust his policy to the ideal of self-sufficiency by substituting sugar beet and wheat for the bullock? Have the new factories helped the country? Are the country towns as prosperous as Dublin was before the transport strike? What of Mr. de Valera's house-build-ing and relief schemes? \ How have 'hey affected men's minds? What of Mi\ de Valera's prestige in the country? What is the position of the Opposition and the Blue Shirts? What of the 1.R.A.? What about the growth of Communism and the influence of tho Catholic Church? Has the countryside, like Dublin, succumbed to the propaganda which seeks to inculcate the idea that the Republic must come, since the Irish people will never rest content i with anything less than a Gaelic State and complete separation from Great Britain, cost what it may? Politically it is everywhere slack water. The doubt is whether the tide is going to fall towards Conservatism or rise to revolution. 'Mr. de Valera's star has apparently passed its zenith. There is little enthusiasm for him in the country, but no successor is in sight. The Cosgravites have lost heart, the Blue Shirts are broken, the farmers cowed or unorganised, and the I.R.A. has no policy and no leader. PROSPEROUS DUBLIN. Dublin is prosperous, sees no chance of settling the economic war, wishes to forget all about it and to be allowed to think that the farmers are adjusting their economy to meet the new situation created by the British tariffs. This wish is all-the stronger because the transport strike and the 'bold attitude assumed by ■ I.R.A. men on ' their trial have roused the fear that the revolution started by Mr. de Valera may roll the ; wheel much further before stability can again be reached. Hence business Dublin would be glad to see, a National .Government headed by Mr.. de. Valera to check Communism and the 1.R.A., and it would not allow a' trifle ■ like the economic war to stand in the way of a coalition. There are, however, two difficulties in the way-of: this project. First, even if Mr. de Valera could wholeheartedly break with the I.R.A.— which is still doubtful—he could never bear to appear as the champion of the property-owners against the men of no property; Secondly, the farmers, who must be behind any National Government, have not forgotten, and cannot forget, the economic war. COUNTRY STAGNATION. That was made abundantly clear to me wherever I went. Sugar beet, wheat, and butter subsidies may be all'very well in their way. Pigs may be fair and sheep even good. But nothing wjll make up for the loss of the,=. farmers' main cash crop, the bullock—aggravated, as it is by the decline of the eggs and poultry trade,

which used to enable the farmer's wife to meet her current housekeeping expenses. With small farmers and large farmers it is everywhere the same story. The sale of the bullock at six months, one year, two years, or three was the keystone of their farming economy. The bullock now goes for a song if it is saleable at all. There is no visible sign of distress anywhere, and I might have discounted the farmers' talk as the usual grumbling if it had not been corroborated by the country town bankers, shopkeepers, solicitors, and schoolmasters, and the labourers, too. All of these say that the country is going downhill and that there is less and less money circulating. Last year was bad, but this year is worse. "If Dublin is prosperous, then it is the only prosperous place in the Free State —thanks, no doubt, to the tariftprotected industries and the newlyappointed civil servants concentrated there. There can be no restoration of prosperity for the country and country towns till the Britist tariffs on Free State produce are removed. To secure that would be worth all the new factories put together." BEET AND WHEAT. Generally speaking, the farmer is contemptuous of the new factories, but he has welcomed the opportunity of growing sugar beet for them up to the limit of about 80,000 acres, which is all that the countrycan use. The crop gives him a fairly safe fhough narrow margin of profit, while all unsubsidised farming is apt to mean a heavy loss. The reason why beet pays is, of course, because the factories are subsidised, at least as heavily as their English counterparts. Since the whole of the Free State's sugar is to be produced in them the burden on the taxpayer and consumer can easily be imagined. The joke is that the farmers themselves are among the most important consumers and payers of indirect taxation. As to subsidised wheat, the farmer has decided to grow that too, but only after much hesitation. The hesitation seems to bo justified. Beet is comparatively little affected by weather conditions, but wheat is a gamble in the Irish climate. This year the farmers, encouraged by three successive dry seasons, a guaranteed price, and the knowledge that no unsubsidised crop, not even the bullock, is likely to pay its way, have raised the area under wheat from the 25,000 acres customary under Cosgrave to something- near; 200,000 acres. That should meet 25 per cent, of the country's total requirements in wheat flour. The Government will direct the millers after next, harvest to buy at the guaranteed price all the home-grown millable wheat offered to them. The ■millers will then presumably be allowed to pass the excess price' with the flour on to their customers through the loaf. The future has yet to; show whether the customers will like either the price or the flour. But the millers are known to have their doubts about both. , They are therefore, expected to be as strict as they dare in their judgment of what is millable wheat, and if the autumn is wet they may, so the farmers admit, have very good reason for quarrelling with much of what is offered them. . POET AND BANKS. Still, with subsidised wheat ,and beet the farmer could carry on on a reduced scale of profits, if it were not for his overhead charges., I found one intelligent farmer who held that the situation could be saved if the banks were compelled to write down the farmers' debts in proportion to the fall in prices. The extremists in the towns have long been denouncing

the banks as the villains in the piece. But in the country I found that these ogres are, after all, little feared. It is true that many substantial farmers owe them more than they can ever hope to pay. But it is the Government and the local authorities who insist on exacting their pound of flesh from the farmer's stock, even if he bleeds to death, and are surprised because the result is sporadic or organised violence. The banks have learnt their lesson long ago and know better than to try to sell up an Irish farmer. Nevertheless, the Free State banking system—now under investigation by an authoritative banking commission —has certain peculiarities which may be illustrated by the following story derived from a well-informed but imaginative source. Once there was a highly cultured Irish bank director. One day he heard there was a Protestant poet in a singularly remote town which may here go by the name of Ballinakill. Wishing to learn more about the history of this curious phenomenon, he looked in his list of branch banks tor the name of his local branch manager in the town. To his surprise he could not find Ballinakill in the list. He called for his bank manager and said to him: "How is this? The town of Ballinakill has a Protestant poet and yet we do not seem to have a branch bank there. If the town of Ballinakill can support a Protestant poet surely it can support a branch bank. Put one there at once." So that bank established a branch there. THE SEVEN SISTERS. Now the Free State boasts of not one or two but many banks. In fact, some speak of the "Seven Sisters," though the name understates the true number. The Sisters all live peaceably together. But, as happens with sisters, if one of them does anything all the others must do the same thing. Hence when one dignified branch bank was established in Ballinakill six others had to be set up with equal dignity beside it. The difficulty was that besides the fourteen old-established public-houses there were only seven other buildings in the town of Ballinakill. Hence that city now, so my informant averred, consists exclusively of one post office, fourteen public-houses, and seven branch banks. Being interested by the story I went some distance out of my way to verify it. I can say that it is better founded than many-reports about Ireland which have been submitted to.. the, British Parliament. It is true that the number of publichouses was grossly .exaggerated, but the Protestant poet was there all right. As to : the branch banks, I could not obtain exact statistics of their number. But it struck me that if any Irish party wished, to revive the'industry of robbing banks Ballinakill would;be a good training ground for raw apprentices.