20 JUNE 1952, Page 7

The Manchester Guardian and its special correspondent Mr. Patrick Keatley

deserve the greatest' credit for the series of illustratecLarticles which are republished this week in a pamphlet called The Traffic in Irish Horses. They give an objective but horrifying picture of conditions on the ' Pony Express " which in the last three years has carried thousands of horses to agony and slaughter in the Continental abattoirs. ("Even while this series of articles has been appearing," Mr. Keatley points out, " another seven hundred frightened animals have boarded the Pony Express for the one-way trip of con- finement, sea-sickness and bloody death.") It will be surprising if the articles, which are, I believe, being reprinted in their entirety by the Irish Times, do not have some effect on the Government of Eire.