26 JANUARY 1934, Page 6

I note with interest the statement of the Irish Free

State Minister for Industry and Commerce that the Free State Government is proposing to .emancipate itself completely from dependence on foreign fuel by producing from its own bogs peat briquettes equal calorific value to coal. For if I am not mistaken, this means the adoption by Mr. de Valera's Govermnent of a process in which Lord Balfour and his relatives sank a great deal of money some thirty years ago. They have never got a penny of it back yet, and it would be odd if the family found its revenues suddenly swelled by the descendants of the men regarding. whom Mr. Balfour, as Chief Secretary in the 'eighties, gave his famous injunction " Do not hesitate to shoot."