Irish services of all kinds now cost the Imperial Exchequer,
roughly, eleven and a half millions a year, whereas the actual revenue obtained from Ireland only comes to, roughly, nine and a half millions a year. Therefore what will actually happen when we collect the Irish taxes and pay all the exist- ing purely Irish charges will be that we shall have to hand over to Ireland two millions a year of money that has been raised from the pockets of the English and Scottish taxpayers. We grant Ireland, in fact, a dole or subsidy of two millions a year. We need not trouble our readers with certain serio-comic stipulations which set forth that if Ireland can pay her way for three successive years, then arrangements will be made for her to enjoy the privilege of paying her share of the Army and Navy, and for her Parliament to have further powers of taxation. Has all sense of humour left Mr. Asquith when he can make such a suggestion as this P It might be reasonable to give Ireland a premium for managing her finances well. Instead, she is told that if she manages well she will be fined by having to pay her share of the Army and the Navy. Nothing is said, we note, about any contribution, however prospective and illusory, to the National Debt. Apparently the Liberal Party act upon a principle analogous to that involved in an old Radical gibe. " Orator " Hunt was fond of saying in his speeches: " Ah, gentlemen, it is the King's Army and the King's Navy, but it is the National Debt." So now we are in effect told that " it may some day be the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy, but it shall never be anything but the English Debt."
Previous page
