THE. ROUND TABLE
The Round Table, as always, is full of interest., and of impartial wisdom. "The Irish Free State : An Ex-Unionist View" is a real help to clear thinking about present conditions in Ireland. The author bids his readers consider first "some of the achievements which must in fairness be put to the credit side of the Government account.", The greatest of these are, he thinks, the restoration of social order and the suppression Of crimes of violence." Order,- he goes on, has been restored "at a great price indeed. The cost in Honey of maintaining armecrforces in 1921 and 1922' was enormous. The eciat of.restoring public-and private buildings was greater. The cost in life was graver still. There were eighty executions of rebels in :six inonthf." " Ireland is poorer: han it has been within living memory " Trade is very blid." t" The finan- cial condition:a Ireland is .very. grave." 'tlie people sec that they did not olive' their: poirerty to England. " Ireland is- awaking from her foolish dreams of Utopia." -Anti-British feel- ing is disappearing among the bulk of the people. " Irishmen are not sentimentalists as Englishmen arc ; they arc materialist
in temper and always have an eye to material prosperity."
" If Great.Britain will her word without qualification or reserve Southern Ireland will not fail to follow her example." `-` Conditions of Industrial Progress," by " a writer who is in close touch with conditions in the Midlands," while warning workmen ..that shorter hours and higher wages than those which prevail on the_ Continent make competition difficult, throws much of the responsibility for present trade anxieties upon the employers. " We are undoubtedly suffering from the fact that many of our business men have inherited busi- nesses for the control of which they are not fitted, either by nature or training." They have not the years, the " daring and resource," which characterized ". their abler and more venturesome fathers and grandfathers." He is, however, hopeful that all will be well; believing that the British people, " when they really care," are still able to display those qualities of initiative and resource for which the nation was once famous. It is time that we really did care." As usual, much space is devoted-to the Dominions. In " Canada" the issues in the Federal ;Elections are discussed, the seamen's disputes in " Australia," and the Budget in " South Africa." The Editor informs us that the Round Table is boycotted by bookstalls and certain, other distributing agencies because its publishers are involved in a wages dispute with their work. people. Readers may obtain copies of the December issue by applying to the RounrkTable, 2 Paper Buildings, Temple, E.C.4.
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