DUBLIN AND THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 248, 10 July 1915, Page 3

DUBLIN AND THE WAR.

LOYALTY OP IRISH CAPITAL. THE COUNTRY PROSPEROUS. First impressions of Dublin after nine months’ absence reveal to one u town humming with prosperity. The busy quays arc alive with the movements of commerce. Ships lying beside them are discharging cargoes or talcing in others. Grafton Street on this fine spring afternoon is thronged with shoppers, and the shops are filled with beautiful and costly things. All this reflects the prosperity of Ireland as a whole. The Irish farmer has never had such times. Everything he has to sell has gone up to unheard-of prices. You read about Roscommon fair, for instance, where bullocks made pounds a head more than they did last year. Comfort has become , diffused among all classes.

Agrarian trouble has disappeared. So has crime. There has been quite a run on while hid gloves during the time of the Winter Assizes. That splendid body of men, the Royal Irish Constabulary. console themselves with a vagrant or a stray pig about once a month.

But what does Ireland say about tlic war? It is bringing her wealth and prosperity. Is she bearing her share of the common Imperial burden ? On the whole, the answer is "Yes,” and that answer is the more true if we make it include the Irish race throughout the Empire. There is. of course, nothing to be wondered at in this, for there are not now, and never have been, finer fighting men than the Gael anywhere. On the plains of Almanza, in the marshes of Fontenoy, Ireland’s exiles made their mark in history. The question whether the Empire is getting the best out of this splendid reservoir of fighting material is one of the highest importance. Contrast the spirit of Dublin to-day with that which existed in the dreary years from bSf)f) to 1002. I was (says an English writer) in Dublin in the spring of 1000, when Queen Victoria made her well-remembered visit. Her Majesty was received with enthusiasm by the official classes, but with cold, although polite, indifference by the people. > An English visitor at that time grow enthusiastic over the little tricolour flags that he saw everywhere with a strip of green across the end. “The rod. white and blue,” he said, "with a slice of green for Ireland.” It was pointed out to him that these •wore the identical colours which wortworn in the Boor Republics to show sympathy with President Kruger’s Government. What a change fifteen years have wrought! Air. Redmond and his party ire appealing to the Irish race to rally round the Union Jack. All classes and all creeds are worn■ng to find recruits for King George's f vnv. Afy car-driver this morning told me with pride how ho had fernbrothers at the front, not one of whom had had a scratch. Then we went on to discuss .the chances of the war, and the urgent necessity of hanging the pirate* out of hand.

Ton years ago you would never have succeeded iu getting a Dublin car-driv-er to got enthusiastic about the success of British arms. I am told that up is

a month ago nothing had been done -t:, the way of billposting or advertising, but evidently an expert has boon rework during the last few necks. Advertisemuts have been appearing iu all daily and weekly newspapers, and the greatest billposting campaign that Dublin has ever seen has been carried out. The same applies to all parts of Inland. Who would have thought twel .v years ago that the Dublin 'ear-drivers would have displayed recruit ing'biils their cars! The apparent improbability has come to pass. Indeed, the appeals arc everywhere —on shops, banks, warehouses, quays, on buildings owned by Catholics ancr Protestants, and by( Unionists and Na-tionalists-—with two remarkable exceptions: Liberty Hall, the centre of Mr. James Larkin's activities, looks on in bare and cold indifference. The same may be said of Trinity College, Dublin. The Bank of Ireland is covered with patriotic appeals; so is the Post Office, so is the Castle. Trinity College, wL:. walls which reach nearly a furlong down Grafton, Nassau, and College Streets, has never a one. This is so curious a fact that I sought out a billposter. and learned from him that novo might be posted on those august walls-.