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THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG "ENDED YEARS OF BAD HEADACHES "Fryit-a-tives" CompletalyRelleves H. G. Beott tn Red It was in the West of Ireland that British rule first broke down under the attacks of Sinn Fein, It was in Western Ireland that were made the last efforts of De Valera's republican Irregulars to resist the rule of the Free State Government. Today peace exists in Western Ireland, but it is peace of a peculiar and rather precar- fous type. The Irregulars are for the moment quiet and not openly active, but they have not ceased to exist. Free State soldiers say that secret drilling of the Irregulars is still going on, just as secret drilling of the Sinn Feiners went on in the days of British rule, and that these Irregulars have plenty of arms. Occasional raids and searches for these arms were carried out by the Free State troops but they have little success. It is interesting to see how completely all signs of bit- terness and hostility toards the Bri- tish have died out in these Free State troops. British visitors to the coun- try can count on being treated with friendly courtesy by soldiers and po- lice, and in fact there are now increas- ing numbers of British paying holiday visits to the famous beauty spots or the fishing Trivers of Western Ireland. On the other hand, there is no love lost between the soldiers and the Ir- regulars, whom the soldiers contemp- tuously refer to as the "Bolshies." So completely has feeling changed with regard to the British that it is be- 'ling said in private conversation that it is a great pity that the British have left and that it would be an excellent thing if they came back. Probably a good deal of this is due merely to the Irish habit of contradictoriness, and even more of it is due to the heavy fin- ancial loss to shopkeepers and traders generally resulting from the with- drawal of the British troops, but the change does exist. whatever its cause. A visitor to the West recently who was told of it was inclined to be ex- tremely sceptical on: the subject but the very next day when making'some small purchases in a shop he happened to ask the woman who kept the shop about the state of business in the town, and was surprised to hear her launch out into a denunciation of the-distur- bances and depression which have been prevalent since the British left. "We have never had peace or good times," she said, "since the British went away and most of the people, if they spoke what is in their minds, would be glad to see the British back again, only they do not dare to say 30." Yet this woman 'was an Irish Roman Catholic, who went on to speak with regret of the loss of respect for the priests a- mong the young men of the district, though she evidently failed to realze how much that loss is due to the un- doubted encouragement given by the priests to rebellion, outrage and mur- der in the years when Sinn Fein was conducting its anti-British campaign. -------- Under Curb of Fear. The suggestion that the people are to some extent at least under the curb of fear is borne out by enquiries in other directions. A stranger who tries to ascertain the selling value of farm land in Western Ireland. is met by a curiously persistent evasion of his questions. He is told that it will de- pend on the quality of -the land (a somewhat obvious point), that it is not easy to say what the price is, that some land is good and some land is stony or wet. He is told anything and everythifig except what he wants to Jnow. A hint at the cause of this was given by a worthy Irishman, a Catho- lic, who, ont being asked as to values iy his district, evaded the question in his turn: "Are you thinking of buying land here yourself?" The stranger re- plied that he was. "Then you had bet. ter take care that they don't start on you," said the Irishman, and left unex. plained the exact reference to the "They," and the exact meaning of the "Start on you." An old Scotsman, a . DE THOMAS' ECLECTRIC OlL 'SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS Circumstances are beyond the con- rol of man, but his conduct is in his own power. Disrash. The highest of characters is his who 1s 2s ready to pardon the moral errors of mankind as if he were every day guilty of the same himself, and at the same time as cautious of committing fault as if he never forgave one Pliny the Younger, ', Life up your eyes, be glad, be strong, The whole wide sky is fair, And evermore be this your song We are in our Father's care. --Margaret Sangster - * Ve © When we ask God to direct our foot wteps, we are to move Qur feet~--Anon. + Let the wicked forsake his way, and unrighteous man his thoughts; _ and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pars don~Isa 83:7. ae 3 . If on our daily course our mind = Be set to hallow all we find, ow treasures still, of countless price, God will provide for sacrifice. ~John Keble. It is thy duty oftentimes to do what thou 4 not; thy duty, toe, to leave undone what thou wouldst do.--Tho- . mas a Kempis. "We Got Exercise at the Woodpile" Ee pre I AN IRISH LETTER Deer News, Alberta. Protestant, long resident in the West of Ireland, was more explicit on the subject. "Do you know," he said, "the price you will pay for farm land here?' and on being answered "No," "You will pay your life," he said He went on to tell how an unwritten illegal sin- ister ban exfsts in Western Ireland on the purchase or ownership of farm land by Protestants and strangers. Boy cott, tefrorism, and murder are still used to enforce this ban. . Two years ago in the district in question a Roman Catholic cattleman employed by a Protestant refused to abandon his employer's service, when the latter was forced to flee from his land. The cattleman remained on the land looking after the absent owner's interest, At the door of his little cot- tage he was shot dead. The local Ca- tholic priest denounced the crime from the altar as murder, and the same night the windows of the priest's house were smashed, and a warning conveyed to him that he would do well to restrain his tongue in such matters, or he too would meet with an "acci- dent." Only a few weeks ago in the same district another Roman Catholic farm hand who refused to abandon his Protestant employer's land, had his two-roomed cottage fired into at night time, The assailants knew exactly the spot in the cottage where was placed the bed in which his wife and daugh- ter slept, and they aimed their-shots carefully so that the bullets, fired from |. both sides of the house, should pass close over the heads of these women, who had no means of shelter, since there were windows on each side of the cottage. The men who did these things dre known beyond question throughout the district, yet they go about freely, unchallenged by any. If, therefore, it is said that agrarian out- rages have ceased in Western Ireland, that cattledriving and similar lawless deeds no longer, take place, and that peace has been established in the coun- try, the comment may perhaps fairly be made that this has been done by something akin to the method of mak- ing a desert and calling it peace. Local government in Western Ire- land does not seem to be marked by a high degree of success. The city of Cork, like Dublin itself, has had its popularly elected council suspended by the Free State Government on ac- count of corrupt inefficiency, and is now under the rule of a nominated commission. The town of Galway has had no municipal election for seven Years owing to the disturbed state of the country, The existing council has had its term of office prolonged from time to time until better conditions should be established. The attendance of the councillors has been and is any. thing but regular, a quorum is got with difficulty, and the dominant figures in the council are men of whom it may be said without unkindness that neither inteMlectual nor educational eminence is their distinguishing characteristic. Under their regime the town's local rates reached a level a short time ago of 25-6 in the' £ though they have since been reduced to about 16s, in the Farmers Bad Way. Outside the towns, in the country, conditions are bad. The farmers of Ireland, like those of most countries, are in a bad way. The deplorable wea- ther of this summer has hit them ex- tremely hard, and in the West parti. cularly, where much of the soil is stony or wet, the farms are small, and the farmers have little or no reserve resources to fall back on, the depres- sion is acute. The North-West of the Free State, including the county of Donegal, has had in the past almost regular crises when appeals were ad- dressed to the British Government in Dublin for help of various kinds to avert starvation, appeals which, in re- cent times at any rate, were not made in vain. Now, however, the Free State Government, harassed by political in- trigue, and with no money to shown an inclination to turn a deaf ear to these appeals, and to inti. mate that the annual starvation 'stunt' which worked with a wealthy and fool. ishly credulous English government will not do with intelligent Irishmen, and that the North West must develop the instincts of self-nelp--a healthy and stimulating attitude on the part of the Free State Government, which, however, is apt to be regarded by those affected by it merely as a convincing indication that the Free State Govern- { of an unfortunate tendency on the part of Irishmen to distrust their own countrymen and Took upon them with jealous eyes. It is again a possibly significant thing that these examiners have not been without experience of occasional "influence" being brought to bear on them, even from ecclesias- tical quarters, to look with leniency on candidates for examinations whose educational qualifications are not so high as is expected of them. It seems hard to believe that improved stand- ards of education would not reflect themselves before long in improved standards of cleanliness in the streets and houses of Western Ireland. Housing Conditions Deplorable. . It is not overstating the case to say that the housing conditions both in the farms and towns of Western Ireland are deplorable. Low, often thatched- roofed dwellings, dark and smoky, with doors of the "half" pattern fam- iliar in stables and smithies, opening direct from the crowde main living room into streets which appear to re- ceive all the household refuse in their uncleaned gutters--these things, what- ever their cause, must surely be changed before a people really healthy in body and mind can be brought into existence. Many British manufactur. ing towns are ugly and sordid enough, but there is a combination of poverty dirt, and sloveliness about these houses in Western Ireland, which is singularly depressing, and which more than neu- tralizes 'the clean, healthy smell of the burning peats and fhe fresh winds from the Atlantic that blow over the hills and through the streets of Wes. tern Ireland. Suggestion of Distrust. As in Dublin, so in Western Ireland, the suggestion of distrust is in the air. Secret brotherhoods, underground in- fluences, unspoken menaces are too many to allow of a really comfortable atmosphere. Of such an uncomfortable character 1s this incident. The Limited mail from the West of Ireland to Dublin on a recent day stopped at a small fown on its route. In one of the Compartments ~ were four men, two Irish, two British, occupying 'the cor- ners of the compartment. Amongst those who got into the corridor of the carriage were two jmen, one of whom came into the compartment in question. His companion opened the door and asked him in English to come along to another compartment, but the first man replied in a langu- age which was presumably Irish and remained where he was. The Irish railways have a broader gauge than those of Great Britain, and the car- riages are therefore wider and more roomy. Yet the newcomer deliberately and quite needlessly seated himself very close to one of the Britishers in the compartment and, as soon as the train started, stealthily nudged him with his elbow. The Britisher looked at him, and suspecting from his rather strange manner and look that he was either unbalanced or slightly drunk, took no notice of him. The man's hands were moving restlesSly," clasp. ing and unclasping spasmodically, but gradually these movements became re- gular until they took shape in the deaf and dumb alphabet, in which he "talked" for a minute or two. None of the other men in the compartment | §, took any notice, and suddenly the newcomer stood up, put his hat on, and without saying a word went out of the compartment and along the cor ridor to join his friend. After he had gone, the man beside whom he had been sitting and who, though British, has much experiente of and travels widely in Ireland, hazarded the sug- gestion that the meaning of his be. hayiour was to be found in an attempt to ascertain whether any of those in the conmipartment belonged to one or other of the secret societies with which Southern Ireland is honeycomb- ed, and that this accounted both for his speaking to his companion in Irish and for his use of the deaf and dumb alphabet. The suggestion may be fan tastic but that it should be made at all under the circumstances is some indi. cation of the troubled and dubious feel. ing prevailing inthe Free State, -- Free State Sentries, Tris said that crime of the ordinary kind other than that due to politics or religion is not prevalent in Western Ireland, but the presence at the doors of the banks in some at least of the towns of Free State soldiers with fix- ed bayonets seems to indicate appre- hension that some of the lawless ele. ments might try to fill in their time during the present interval of com. Germs of Cai Malte Sern Throat -- and injlbd VACUUM (AIR-TIGHT) TH fin 7 I) 7, iti Pema, ~~ parative political peace by raiding the banks in their own interest. These Free State sentries are not models of smartness. Usually they appeared to be leaning against the wall of the bank doorway, their hands deep in their Breatcoat pockets, and their rifles carelessly supported in the hollow of an arm, while they chatted pleasantly with one another or with civilian friends. Prospective handits would ardly have a very difficult task to "get the drop" on these rather bored and indifferent guardians of the coun- try's wealth, The Ulster boundary question re- ceives little attention for the momeirt in Western Ireland, where the people are 'tired of political discussion. Vet the men who know the feeling of the country say that the fires are not out but only smouldering, and that if "in- cidents" take place 6n the border-- and the deliberately provoked double arrest of De Valera in Ulster is exactly the sort of incident suggested--or a calculated agitation is begun, these fires will swiftly leap into flame. If that happens, the difficult and tedious task of economic reconstruction will be abandoned for the far more con- genial and exciting occupation of a war against "the Black Protestants of the North." \ (To be continded) 2 shies ot §85s LOSSES THROUGH FRAUD REVEAL NEED OF MORE THRIFT EDUCATI By S. W. Straus, President American Society for. Theift.. bn Commendable organized edu- 'cational efforts now are made to saf d individuals against losses h fraudulent investments, Current events emphasize the need for mor intensive thrift education through the s as well as in ¥ Proved afe by millions and