The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1932. THE COST OF DE VALERA

Southland Times, Issue 21835, 12 October 1932, Page 6

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1932. THE COST OF DE VALERA

The idea that successful negotiations with the British Government will be followed by a general election in the Irish Free State should not be accepted at this stage. It is true that if Mr de Valera is able to show that the British Government was compelled to give ground over the land annuities and other seized payments, he will be able to approach his followers with added prestige; but though his economic policy at home has been dictated by a desire to please those without property and without income, the taxation has been repressive and it has curtailed industry to such an extent that many Irishmen have come to wonder if this mathematician knows the effects of the legislation his party has passed. Using as a slogan the encouragement of local industry, Mr de Valera has been erecting a China Wall round Ireland, and he has supported it with legislation imposing special taxes on industrial concerns in Ireland not owned and controlled by people of Irish parentage. It is interesting to notice that the definition of an Irish National who can escape this special levy would exclude Mr de Valera himself. One immediate result of this special legislation has been the closing of a number of factories and the cancellation of orders to build others, because this discriminatory excise, as was intended, has made- the maintenance of factories in Ireland to escape the tariff impossible. Ireland needs capital, but the legislation put through by Mr de Valera’s party, irrespective of the special measures produced as retaliation for the special British duties, has frightened capital away, because there is nothing to show that more repressive measures will not come in the future. Having promised costly social services during the election campaign, Mr de Valera has been compelled to find revenue for them by means of heavy taxation, and if there had been no interference with the export of stock and produce to Britain, Ireland would still have groaned under a burden too heavy for these times. The Irish Republican Army is keeping Mr de Valera to the very narrow path fixed by its bitter hatred of Britain. Recently it objected to the Government’s proposal to establish a Territorial force because it feared that this organization might be used to free the Government from the manacles put on it by the 1.R.A., and it has secured the release of members convicted of offences against the state; but while the republic is its aim, the policy it has demanded so far has done nothing more than bring the Free State to ruin. The economic war provoked by Mr de Valera has been ruinous to southern Ireland, and as far as anyone can see the continuance of it will not bring Ireland any nearer to relief. As Mr de Valera has made no secret of his real purpose—the establishment of a republic—it is inconceivable that the MacDonald Government will compromise on the annuities question and give the Free State president the chance he seeks to escape from the pit of his own digging and appear before his countrymen as a man who has triumphed over his hated enemy. The key to the situation is held by the Irish Labour Party which holds the balance of power in the Dail and at any moment can compel the Government to summon the Dail and give an account of its doings in the recess. If the Dail were summoned under such circumstances the Government would be sent to the country, with the electors possessed of indisputable evidence that Mr de Valera’s programme has been extremely costly and a trial to the flesh.