Thursday's papers publish a remarkable statement issued by the business
men of the three southern provinces of Ireland. It is a reasoned protest against the Home Rule Bill, on the ground of the disastrous results which would inevitably follow from its financial proposals. We have not space even to summarize the exhaustive analysis of these proposals, but must content ourselves with quoting the final paragraph, which recapitulates what has gone before :—
" The progress of social reforms will be checked ; capital will be deflected from Ireland; business credit will be granted only on more onerous terms ; Irish Government loans will be impossible except at high rates ; the local authorities will be compelled, in
general, to obtain any cash needed for capital expenditure from the banks or other lenders, who will be obliged to charge higher rates of interest than at present; local rates are likely to rise ; the natural increments of revenue from Imperial taxes will not belong to the Irish Government; expenditure must rise and new taxes will have to he imposed; the field of taxation is so limited by the provisions of the Bill that any appreciable sum can be raised only by uneconomic, untried, harassing, and discriminating methods, or by reducing the scale of old-age pensions ; and a flight of manufacturing industries to other countries must be anticipated. Against these there can only be set to the credit of the proposal the satisfaction of national sentiment, with all that this phrase may connote in the minds of different individuals."
We need only add that this is not a case of mere assertion, since the body of the statement gives convincing reasons for the conclusions arrived at, and that the signatories include members of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, chairmen and directors of the principal railway companies, leading bankers, and representatives of practically all the trades and industries of the southern provinces of Ireland.
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