30 MAY 1925, Page 14

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—While appreciating very highly

the interesting articles on Ireland, I may nienticn two important causes of the de- pression in the linen trade in Ireland and also in this country which are not referred to : (1) The Russian debdcle creating a great scarcity and increased cost of flax by which yarns are three times as high as in 1899 ; (2) the imports of Continental linen goods at prices which no manufacturer here can com- pete with. The result is that union and cotton goods are supplanting linens all over the world, and a large proportion of them are bought under the presumption that they are