FREE STATE IRELAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 31 January 1936, Page 3

FREE STATE IRELAND

ITS FINANCIAL PROBLEMS DE VALERA AS DICTATOR LONDON, 28th December. An Opposition without backbone, single Chamber rule, and a President who is aiming at dictatorship are the political elements in Southern Ireland, or will be, when Mr De Valera has abolished the Free State Senate next month. Already the referendum, King George’s veto, and the right of Privy Council appeal have been abolished. The delaying powers of the Senate, therefore, repreorfiiiect the last bulwark against the undue authority of the President and Eiauna Fail. Even more dangerous for those Irishmen who do not happen to belong to Fianna Fail is the impotence of the Opposition, and the fact that- its most active element has turned Fascist. When Commandant Cronin’s Blackshirt organisation met las! the delegates greeted ilie council, headed by Director-General Cronin and bis assistant, Colonel Jerry Ryan, with a Fascist salute. Even the Free State Opposition is toying with a dictatorship. POLITICAL GENEROSITY

It may be asked why the Irish people assent to such a. stale of affairs? The answer is that popular criticism has been silenced by a policy of generous concessions based upon heavy loan expenditure. Widows’ pensions, relief works, grants to members of the Independent Republican .Army, housing subsidies, and doles of cheap meat and milk benelit many sections of society, and the time for paying for these largesses is not yet. Mr Cosgrave recently estimated that taxation burdens upon the community have risen by £10.000,000 since President De Valera took office in 1931. Apart from higher direct taxation, there have been indirect taxes upon bread, sugar, tea, and tobacco, which have been reflected in the form of higher costs of living. Sugar now costs 3J,d a pound in Dublin, and bread 9d to lOd lor the quarter-loaf. Faced with these rises, the unemployed are demanding a 25 per cent, increase in outdoor relief. The ratepayers say they cannot meet (he demand, and that the Government must step in to relieve the pressure. Always the central Government must pay.

This reliance upon the Free State Budget ted to a deficit of £2,430,090 in 1934-35, and it had to be met by loans. A desperate effort is being made to balance incomings and outgoings in 193536, but it is doubtful if further borrowing can be avoided. The Budget position is not made easier by the fact that Irish imports 101 l from £50,000,000 in 1931 to £39,000,000 in 1934. In the same; period exports dropped from £36,250,0G'J to £18,250,000. Fortunately, investors have not lost faith in Free State Ireland, and the national loans have been freely subscribed. Seven million pounds’ worth of stock has just been converted from a 5 to a 4 per cent, basis, saving tlie country about £70,000 a year. The worst danger threatening Southern Ireland, however, is only revealed, when tlie agricultural areas arc considered. It will be remembered that the application of British sanctions, consequent upon the non-payment of the land annuities, left tlie Irish farmers with 200.000 unexportable fat cattle, for which there was no sale in the Tree State. There would have been a catastrophic collapse in prices if the Slate, had not intervened. What it did was • lo promise (lie farmer 22s per cwt. for all his meal. Butchers were called upon to pay a levy lo (lie Stale of £L for every beast killed, and to honour 1 free beef vouchers at 4d per lb. The plan did not work out as was expected. Ffe-, quently the farmer wanted hard cfislij so urgently that he accepted less than 22s per cwt. for his meat, and the butcher increased his prices to private consumers.

A week or so ago the Dail passed a Meat Amending Bill, appointing Government inspectors to deal with tlie evassions of Hie meat regulations. A Guarantee Fund Bill was introduced in tlie Dail to force farmers to pay their rates more promptly. In the last two years arrears of £1,300,000 on account of_ land annuities have accrued, the total liability being only £2,000,000. The Government says the default is due lo a conspiracy of farmers not to pay, but the farmers claim that they are destitute owing to the loss, of the British cattle market. Under the Guarantee Fund Bill the ratepayers in each county will have to make good the whole of the annuity payments due in that area. Already considerable areas in agricultural Ireland are derelict owing to unpaid rates and unpaid annuities, and the stock is liable to seizure. A Land .Commission has been appointed, but it cannot grant loans at less than 6 per cent., and credit-worthy borrowers resent such a rate,

A VIRTUAL DICTATORSHIP As must be the case in such circumstances, each Government intervention involves counter intervention, and it is this fact which makes De Valera rule definitely dictatorial. Several months ago, in order to foster tillage, a price was fixed for barley and oats. With this regulation went an order that all cereal feeding stuff should contain an admixture of 50 per cent, of home-grown grain. This mixing ordinance alone increased the cost of the feeding stuff by 3s per (pvt. over whole maize. As the feeders tire mostly small men on the nontillage land in Western Ireland, the effect of the regulation has been to tax the poorest to benefit relatively well-to-do producers. It is difficult to be just when industries are in process of nationalisation

A similar state of affairs has arisen m the Irish cotton thread industry. Ibis was recently declared a Free State monopoly, and when certain firms were refused a licence to spin and dye cotton thread they promptly began- to import. This forestalling was entirely legal, but it hampered the monopolists. Mr de Valera’s Government accordingly declared the cotton thread importations an act of “sabotage” against Irish industry, and imposed an excise duty of 40 per cent, on all stocks exceeding £IO,OOO in value. As there was no Act of Parliament to cover the point the excise duty is being collected under an Order m Council, subject to ratification by 1 »r----liamcnt within six months. President de Valera has also decided in favour of national insurance to bee]) (he insurance premiums within (lie l'tee State. Hitherto Southern Irish insurance has been shared by 38 loreign and live “home” companies. Now foreign companies will only be pcrmitcil to work under licence, and they will have to form Irish subsidiary companies to do life or other insurance. A State guarantee company will be inaugurated to carry llife reinsurances which the Rush companies are not able to shoulder, t lilies of the measure are asking what will be the position of policy-holders when the full consequence of Fianna Fail s spending and borrowing poli'ff.’ are leH. Meanwhile there are no signs that tnc influence of President de Valera is waning. The weakness or the. opposition maintains hia prestige at full potency.