BATTLE OF TARIFFS

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1933, Page 9

BATTLE OF TARIFFS

SCENES ON ULSTER BORDER. SMUGGLERS’ FAILURES. The operation of the British and Irish tariff war along the 150-mile border between the Irish Free State and Ulster would make the basis of a story such as no writer of fiction would have dared to concoct a few years ago. A Daily Express correspondent toured this area by motor-car in November. The correspondent says:—“l heard of a motorist at Dundalk, in the Free State, who, a few weeks ago, went in his motor-car to Belfast. His tyres were worn out, and he had new ones fitted therp. He did . not declare the change when challenged at the border on returning to’ the Free State. But the Free State Cusotms officers discovered it, and he was fined £54. Moreover, the tyres were taken off, and he had a buy a new set at Dundalk.

“I went to the border on the main Dublin-to-Belfast road, at Carrickarnon, eight miles from Dundalk and four from.’ Newry. There are fences across the road to prevent motorists driving straight through. My driver was pulled up by Free State officers first. He carried a permit called a bond, which allows him to travel to and fro with comparative freedom. But the bond had to be checked and stamped, and the car underwent -a minute examination before he was allowed to. drive on. Ten yards further on, in Northern Ireland, the driver was stopped by Ulster officials. He had to undergo a similar examination there. I underwent a cross-examination, too. . “On the Free State side commercial petrol is Is BJd a gallon; on the Ulster side it is Is 6d. I told my driver to buy a gallon of petrol on' the Ulster side and to get back into the Free State: again. The Free State officers had seen the gallon of petrol put in the car. ‘You. have just had petrol in Ulster,’ one of 'the officers said to the driver. ‘You-will have, to’pay 8d duty on that gallon.’ . “Until a week ago the Free State allowed farmers just over the border to pass through with their produce untaxed in ’ order that they might attend Dundalk market every Monday. But Mr. de Valera a week ago imposed new duties which have ended all that. More than 400 'carts laden with oats and potatoes used to cross the border every Monday. To-day (Monday) not a single one crossed to Dundalk from .Northern Ireland. In the same way the Free State farmers, near the border are prevented by the Northern' Ireland tariffs from disposing of thejr' cattle in Ulster as they used to do.

“Smuggling has been tried, but it is. an unprofitable pastime. I met a farmer near Lifford, in County Donegal, who recently decided to defy the Ulster tariff bar Jiy driving cattle over the border at nigh’t ‘I drove £5OO worth of cattle over the border, but before I had travelled three miles into Ulster, two Customs officers appeared,’ he said. ‘I bolted back over the border, where I was safe, but I lost my cattle, and if. I had stayed I would have been fined three times the duty payable, and would have lost the cattle just the sa'me.' “An Ulster woman, from Newry, crossed the border with her cart laden with Unpn goods. She crossed by a road where there is no customs station, but her luck was out. A Free State officer patrolling the road challenged her. fainted, and the officer carried her to a cottage. He went to look after hex- horse and cart, which had automatically be come forfeit to the Free State; but while he was away she recovered and bolted back across the border. She, of course, lost her horse and cart, but she escaped paying any duty or fine. The. suffering is shared equally by both sides alongside the 150-mile boundary.”