IRISH AFFAIRS: TEMPERANCE AND THE MEDICAL REGISTER
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sra,—The Irish Free State Liquor Commission, to which reference was made in a recent article in the Spectator, has prepared its report. As forecasted, a reduction of the number of licences in the Free State by about one-half is recommended, the publicans whose licences are suppressed to be compensated by a levy on the survivors. Drastic curtailment of the " bona fide " privileges is advised, and it is suggested that every public house should be closed on weekdays between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The number of public houses to survive will be based, it is suggested, on the ratio of one to every 400 people instead of the present 250 people.
The whole Free State is in w state of intense excitement over the Government's -proposal to form a separate medical register for the Free State. As four out of five of medical students attending Trinity College and the National University find their careers outside of Ireland, the loss of a standing in the British Medical Register for Dublin-trained men will mean the virtual destruction of Dublin's eminence in medicine, since students will go elsewhere and our great experts will be lost to the Free State capital. The Government's decision is frankly based solely on political considerations. The determination to make the Free State self-centred even in medicine and science challenges the whole body of educated opinion in Ireland, Nationalist as well as " ex-Unionist," which desires to see the Irish Dominion enjoy to the full the advantages of its association with the States of the British Commonwealth. Astonishing is the unanimity of opposition which has arisen to the Goternment's proposals. The medical profession has protested almost with vehemence, and the candidates in the Senatorial elections are being asked to champion the threatened medical schools. The dispute
may broaden into a general conflict between two schools of thought—that desiring separation in all things from things British, and that which seeks a place in modern progress for the Irish people.—I am, Sir, &c., IRISHMAN.
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