IN DESPAIR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 July 1932, Page 5

IN DESPAIR

FREE STATE FARMERS EXPORTS TO BRITAIN STOPPED STATEMENT BY AIR DE VALERA (United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright) DUBLIN, 10th July. Keen disappointment is felt at Air do Valera’s failure to negotiate a settlement. Earners are in despair, as the export of cattle, sheep, eggs and butter has practically stopped and a deadlock in agriculture and business is threatened. Republican revolutionaries started a boycott of British goods, hut Dublin police tore down the posters and placards proclaiming it. . Meanwhile heavy consignments of British" manufactures are being shipped to (he Free State, as the expected retaliatory duties include wearing apparel, boots and shoes, and coal, also heavier stamp duties and a tax upon British insurance premiums. After a long Cabinet discussion Mr de Valera' issued a statement -saying that the only obstacle to arbitration on land annuities is the British Government s insistence that restrictions should be imposed on the arbitrators nominated by the Irish Free" State. The Government of the Free State will not accept the principle that whenever two states in the British Commonwealth propose to submit disputes to arbitration the personnel of the tribunal must be drawn exclusively from the Commonwealth. The alternative to arbitration is negotiation, but Britain demands as a preliminary to negotiations that the disputed payments be continued. The Government cannot agree to that, hut as evidence of good faith the sums required to meet payments are being put into a suspense account'. The Free State is not anxious to enter into an economic war, but is determined to defend the interests of itV; people who are unjustly compelled to bear the present burden

ANGLO-IRISH RELATIONS

BOOK BY LORD MIDDLETON LONDON, 18th July. Ulster Customs officials made new regulations to check evasion of duties on the' Free State border, where they established a number of new Customs posts staffed bv, Englishmen in bell tents, ihe sites were purchased some time ago. 'Free State owners refused to pay a duty of £2O per head on racehorses intended to run at the Belfast meeting. Free State Catholics welcome Mr Lansbury’s proposal, especially as the periodical’“Standard,” representing the views of Irish bishops, had already advocated arbitiation.

Lord Middleton’s book written as a result of Lord Balfour’s dying request to remove false impressions of Anglo-Irish relations is being published to-morrow. It denounces the welter of 'government through centuries of British short-sight-edness and Irish perversity. It condemns the antics of Mr Lloyd George after 1916, which caused sinister events, discredited British administration, killed Mr Redmond, and ruined many southern Unionists. The author regrets that few great British statesmen are familiar with Ireland, and expresses the opinion that if a royal residence, even if used only occasionally for sporting purposes, had been established in Ireland it would have enabled the personalities of the present or late sovereigns to be felt by the Irish. The author asks wistfullv if the founders of the Free State who sat by the cradle will be compelled to follow the hearse. SENATE DEBATE SCATHING CRITICISM OF CABINET (Received 19th July, 10.10 a.m.) DUBLIN, 18th July. Mr Connolly, moving the second reading of the Emergency Duties Bill in the Senate, said that it would enable reprisals against Britain, but would be carefullj and prudently exercised. Mr Milroy, who escaped from Lincoln gaol with Mr de Valera, declared that the Bill should be accompanied by a medical certificate of the mental state of the Executive Council. One wondered whether it was the work of criminal lunatics, or those too consumod with mania of neuroticego to regard matters normally. It was a hideous thing and would plunge Ireland into misery and destitution. The Government, in a few months, had brought the country to the direst and most appalling position ever confronting it. Cabinet’s policy was destructive of everything built up since the Treaty. Mr de Valera wanted to return to conditions in 1921 and have another round with England. Mr Browne said that no such powers as those in the Bill had been sought in the history of Parliament. Mr Douglas said that voters would demand the Government at the next election to declare for arepublic, producing another economic war, which was more than Ireland could stand.