IRISH MONEY FOR FOREIGNERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1925, Page 4

IRISH MONEY FOR FOREIGNERS.

WHERE DttES BRITAIN CU.MM IX: Loxnox. 0,1. 2. The fol low in;.; com tracts for work in the Irish h roe State have recently been awanlcd to foreign firms: (•ermany.- Suannon elect rival power .scheme, involving an expenditure of C'.i.CTUiOO; housing contract in Dublin suburbs, valued at £ 1 A;l,fit).) : improvement and reconstruction work at Limerick Docks. Belgium. volving a Government subsidy of some £•100.600. Denmark.—Building of a meat-dress-ing factory at Waterford. I''riincc. - Contract for cleaning Dublin streets, which has Keen guaranteed for ten years at an annual expenditure by the corporation of £131.000. In some cases—for example, in the Dublin street-cleaning and Waterford meat factory contracts—tenders were inivted in the open market; bill in others:—notably the big Shannon electrical scheme—British firms had no opportunity of ever tendering for the work. IR EI. AX D FOR —FORE I OXERS. The recent success of foreign firms in securing contracts for work in the Tree State is causing a good deal of approhension among two reef ions of the population which ordinarily are not mutually in sympathy. The ‘‘Troland for the frish" enthusiasts aro concerned at I lie large sums of money which are going out of the country in payment for foreign brains and material. They are also perturbed by the fact that the ideas of the foreign contractors as to rates of wages are very different from those of the local I rude unions. Those who realise that the Free State is dependent on (Iroat Britain for its prosperity represent the other section of the community which i-, alarmed at the present state nl* affair.-. ’l'hey point to the fact that in the first six months of this year the Tree State’s export trade was as follows: I'o Great Britain ...nearly £1o.(i00.000 To Xorthorn Ireland nearly £3,000.006 1 To all other countries less than BnftO.OOO , DEB!' TO BRITAIN'.

A second point which has considerable influence with the business people of the Static is that tho Free Slate Government lias very considerable financial liabilities to Groat Britain under the Irish Treaty Act. Clause o of this provided that the Free Staie was u> make an annual contribution to the Imperial Rxelierpiei" based upon its liability for tho public debt of the Tinted Kingdom and tor the payment of war pensions as existing in December 1621. when the treaty was signed.

The liability under this clause is estimated at about £5,000,000 a year, and as this is already nearly four years in nrrear a sum of about £20,000.000. i = outstanding.