CORRESPONDENCE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6238, 5 June 1946, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

OUR READERS’ VIEWPOINTS MR A. J. SINCLAIR’S SCHEME Sir, —The scheme of reform being publicised by Mr A. J. Sinclair in regard to marketing of dairy produce is very little different from what is being done now. This vaunted scheme simply boils down to an equalisation or stabilisation scheme, based on overseas prices, a ridiculous procedure. We all know that prior to the 1935 election Government promises were “guaranteed prices irrespective of overseas prices,” but the clever Mr Nash side-stepped the issue, and gave the farmers a stabilised price based on sterling prices—a price that is totally inadequate in view of a rising internal cost level. The parsimony of Mr Nash in this matter has cost the Government the agricultural vote. The principle of the guaranteed price is as popular as ever; it is the amount that is in question. Why on earth should farmers have to accept a minimum price? Why not a price to cover costs of production, plus a reasonable profit? This is where all the costs are, and this is the end to fix the price? Why should we have the spectacle of a young army of officials journeying to London every year or so to haggle over prices? All these junketings could be cut out and overseas countries informed that our prices are so and so. If their ideas are on a lower basis, very well, that is the measure of buying power with them. Our main concern must be the internal welfare of the Dominion. If adequate foodstuffs are to be produced hours of work and pay must be at 'least equal if not superior to those in other industries. Judged on realistic lines, Mr Sinclair’s ideas fair lamentably short; in fact they are just another cul-de-sac for the dairy farmers.—l am, etc., R. G. YOUNG. ■ . MR NASH AND IRELAND Sir, —The statement made by Mr Walter Nash that Ireland had given the most glorious example during the of the fact that the Dominions were entirely free and independent, must give all true Britishers and Irish-, men a feeling of shame and frustration, alleviated only bye the fact that these words were uttered, not by a New Zealander, but by the Kidder of Kidderminster. The first question that might be asked is: “Is Eire (Southern Ireland) a Dominion such as Canada, or New Zealand ? ” Eire gives no allegiance to the Crown. Mr De Valera is Prime Minister and political boss, and when when requested by both Mr Churchill and the late Preident Roosevelt, to restrain the Germans from using their diplomatic posts in Eire as aids ;to the sinking of Allied shipping, refused point blank. William H. Chenery, who knows Eire and the Irish says in a recent article: “The Irish, ever the most bitter enemies of the English, profess no pride in the fact that they made money out of the war—they do not relish the thought that they enriched while others (if they survived at all) were impoverised.” Mr Chenery says also, that “the number one fact we have to comprehend is the hatred of the English- The present regime is built upon a deep and persuasive hatred of the British.” I am not overlooking the fact that the Irishmen who volunteered to serve with the Empire forces were as valorous as any who donned uniform, and that the percentage of decorations for valour was extremely high, nor must it be forgotten that nigh on 200,000 workers went to Britain to work in the factories, thus exposing themselves to the danger of bombing. All this however, does not put Eire “on side,” as the enlistments were not encouraged, merely ignored, and the Government can take no credit for the bravery and sacrifice of these volunteers, and the uneasiness of a guilty conscience will remain for many years. Eire is no more within the British Empire than is Switzerland; Mr Nash’s verbosity and sartorical elegance notwithstanding.

Perhaps Mr Nash is not aware of the fact that few, if any, of the people of Eire would admit that Britain and the Dominions and her own volunteers helped to save Eire fromj the menace of German fascism. Mr Nash is probably the most expensive puppet to sit on the benches of Parliament, and it is to be hoped that now the elections are drawing nigh, and having wined and dined to the full with the mighty, he might be content with his own fireside and less given to' exuberant loquacity.—l am, etc., GAMBIT