THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1932. THE IRISH LAND ANNUITIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21162, 20 April 1932, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1932. THE IRISH LAND ANNUITIES.

While much attention has been paid to Mr. de Valera's hostility to the oath oi allegiance, his equally rabid determination to repudiate the land annuities has been somewhat neglected. This reaction to his policy is. natural: the oath is of vital concern to every part of the Empire, to British citizens wherever domiciled, whereas the annuities are a matter of financial arrangement not so much affecting the two Governments as certain tenants in the Free Siate and the holders of land stock to whom the money is ultimately due. Yet Mr. de Valera's attitude about the annuities is just as unsatisfactory as his endeavour to expunge the oath. In each instance there is flagrant denial of express and legitimate obligations, and full warrant for insistence by the British Government that the obligations ought to be honoured. A perusal of <he full text of the relevant correspondence passing between the two Governments 'a few weeks ago, and communicated lately by cable to the New Zealand Government, reveals that there was, in spite of Mr. de Valera's word to the contrary, a formal and explicit undertaking on the part of the Free State to continue to pay the annuities. The publication of particulars of the agreements signed on behalf of each Government on February 12, 1923, and on March 19, 1926, puts beyond doubt both the fact and the nature of the undertaking. This undertaking is binding in law and honour on the Free State, no matter what Government may there bo in power, and the British Government is manifestly justified in its declared opinion that, while it hopes friendly relations may continue, those relations are bound to be impaired by any failure to complete fulfilment of obligations deliberately undertaken. When the history of the annuities is examined, this frank statement of the position is not a whit too definite or too strong.

That history goes back to a condition of affairs in Ireland when rack-renting of tenants was oppressively practised by landlords. Against this an Irish association, formed in 1850, organised an opposition, demanding "fair rent, free sale, fixity of tenure." Tenants first won a right to compensation for disturbance a:id improvements in the event of unjust eviction. That was in 1870. Eleven years later a more important Land Act ensured "the three F's" demanded in 1850, and by this and subsequent legislation up to 1896, it is estimated, a relief amounting to £2,000,000 a year was effected fot tenants throughout Ireland. Th? beginning of the land annuities, regarded as the real solution of the tenants' grievance, came in 18S5, when the memorable Land Purchase Act was passed. Under its provisions, when a landlord and a tenant agreed on a purchase price, the British Government undertook to finance the transaction, looking to the tenant to repay the advance, in instalments due during a period of years. Tie landlord was thus bought out, usually at a price calculated on eighteen years, of fair rental, and. the tenant, paying annual instalments of 4 per cent, of the agreed price, was enabled to discharge his liability, including interest on the advance, in forty-nine years. Iri its turn, the British Treasury raised by land stock the sums required for advances, and became responsible to holders of such stock, these being resident in the United Kingdom or Ireland. During George Wyndham's term as Chief Secretary for Ireland this policy of buying out landlords—a Conservative policy by the way—-was developed enormously; "Wyndham's Act" of 1903 alone accounted for the transfer of land valued at nearly £80,000,000. He gave better terms'to the sellers, the difference being met by the British Treasury, not the tenants, and thus accelerated transfers. By the time tie Free State came into being, the sums advanced under various Acts amounted to over £100,000,000. Then the Free State Government took over its share of the duty of collecting the annuities, and under Mr. Cosgrave's regime they were regularly paid; the British National Debt Commissioners have discharged the task of distributing payments to the holdiers of Irish land stock.

As is clearly set out in the full text of ths correspondence communicated to the New Zealand Government and in the White Paper now published by the British Government, the Free State expressly undertook to collect and forward the annuities. Mr. de Valera's statement that he knows nothing of any such agreement is amazing, to say the least. He has for many years publicly discussed the position with a show of knowledge, anc nearly five years ago promised, f he came into power, to abolish th< annuities and give the tenants a iree title, save for a small tax. As in 1921 about two-thirds of the lan 1 in Ireland had passed to the ten mts by voluntary agreements und ;r the British legislation and the r< st has since been transferred under a compulsory statute, this promii e must have allured wide support. He probably deems himself pledged, therefore, to contest the positic n ; but neither law nor morality cm be invoked to justify his interc* ption of the obligations of tenant-] urchasers, clearly set out in the financial agreements of 1923 and 1926, ks guaranteed by the Free State Government. He is all the more in tie wrong because of the nature of the obligation he repudiates : it a ose from the beneficent and wise purpose of the British Government, and has contributed much to he peace and prosperity marking, ;o a considerable degree, the progr< ss of the Free State since its incepti dil