FOOD SUPPLIES (IRELAND). (Hansard, 20 March 1917)

§ Mr. BYRNE
On last Thursday, and on previous occasions, I endeavoured to call the attention of the House to the scarcity of food in Ireland, and I asked the Chief Secretary if he would issue instructions to prevent the issue of any further licence for the export of potatoes or any other foods from that country. His answers to me were most evasive; they were like his speeches, rather long, evading the question which was put. The shortage of food is becoming really dangerous in Ireland, when it is remembered that only a month ago the President of the Department of Agriculture stated that there were only enough potatoes in Ireland at that time for Irish needs. Since then. I understand there have been several licences issued to exporters, and large 1868 quantities of food required for Irish use have been sent to this country. I certainly say that England must be fed, but as an Irish representative standing here, I say my first duty is to see that Ireland is fed. Your people in this country are earning very good money, and they are in a much better position than the Irish people to pay the enhanced prices of foodstuffs which is the result of both Government agents and agents of English firms travelling over Ireland from one town to another purchasing all the foodstuffs they can lay their hands on, and it is making it very difficult for the Irish people to get their ordinary supplies.
As an instance of what is going on in Ireland, I may mention a case which will perhaps be considered personal, but it is something which has occurred within the last fourteen days. In the smoke-room of the House of Commons I was asked by a certain firm in England if I would take a commission from them. I asked what it was, and I was offered a cheque-book, to draw any money that I wished, and to go to Ireland and buy anything that I could lay my hands upon and export it to this country. I was told that I could buy butter, eggs, sheep, cattle, and anything I could get in the shape of foodstuff and export it from my own country to this country. The offer at the time was a rather tempting one to me, but I felt that 1869 my duty was first to my own people, and it is not my intention if I can help it to see any repetition of the famine of 1847. There are sufficient Members in this House to look after the needs of England without my aid. The latest returns we have got of the trade imports and exports for Ireland are for the year 1915. These show-that in 1914 farm produce alone was exported from Ireland to the value of £41,000,000, while in 1915 the value of the exports was £48,000,000, an increase of £7,000,000 in one year. We are also providing for 50,000 more troops in 1915 and 1916 than in previous years, and in view of these facts hon. Members of the House will agree it is time that something should be done to prevent any further exports of food from Ireland. To-day in the Irish papers I see it announced that the Government are to be requested to start food depots to provide for the poor in the city of Dublin. Potato factors state that their supplies are exhausted and that their employés are to be dismissed this week. In the words of an English paper of last Saturday, the time for crying that the wolf has come is past, and that the wolf is here. The wolf has come to the door of the homes of the poor people in Ireland, and, I am sorry to say, has got in, because there are no munition works there to help our people to earn the large wages that people are earning in this country. It is not necessary in Ireland to put up huge posters asking people to economise and not to buy pianos and other things, for the people have not sufficient money at the present time to provide themselves with the ordinary necessaries of life. That fact will be brought to the attention of the Chief Secretary within the next few days. There are no potatoes, no wheat, no garden produce coming into Ireland for the last twelve months. All those things are going out, and there must be some stop put to it. I only ask that whatever food is in Ireland at present shall be retained for the Irish people. I think the time has come for State control of foodstuffs and that the Government should commandeer all the food, have an equal distribution, and give an Irishman and his family the same amount as you are giving to an Englishman. I do not ask more for the Irish than I do for the English. I think it would be very easy to find out the quantity of potatoes that are in Ireland to-day and find out the population, and what is required to keep a supply sufficient to meet 1870 the requirements of the people, and if there is anything left send it by all means to this country.
We are, as I have stated, providing for 50,000 troops. When I tell you that there is an application in at present, or an endeavour made by a representative in this House to obtain a licence for the export of 58,000 tons of potatoes from Ireland, I want to know when is it going to end? The President of the Department of Agriculture states that there is only a sufficient supply of potatoes in the country to meet the requirements of the people, and yet we have a Member of this House applying for a licence to export 50,000 tons of their needs. I ask hon. Members, would it be tolerated if you were asked to export foodstuffs from England required for English people? I do not think it would. It was pointed out in this House the other day that a Mr. Denniss stated that in the United Kingdom to-day you have only half a pound of potatoes per head per week for the population. If 50,000 tons of potatoes, or 100 tons leave Ireland, what will become of the half pound per head for our people? I only ask a fair due for our people, nothing more or less. It will be surprising to state that the imports into Ireland for the year 1915 are recorded in the Blue Book issued by the Department of Agriculture as the lowest on record, and the exports from that country are the highest on record, and it goes on to state that the wheat and flour imports into Ireland are the lowest ever known. Am I asking too much when I ask the right hon. Gentleman opposite favourably to consider my request to issue an order to prevent any further export of food from Ireland. The potato exports in 1914 were £634,000, and in 1915 £765,000, a difference of £130,000. The figures for 1916 are not to hand, but I understand that they are even far greater than those figures given. The exports of eggs in 1914 amounted to £3,383, and in 1915 to £4,799, a difference of over £l,400. [An HON. MEMBER: "YOU got a profit out of it!"] My hon. Friend says that the profit has been put into our pocket. That is one of my points. I object to one or two farmers or food exporters profiteering. I object to those people getting the money and lodging it in the banks and not expending anything on industries in our country and sending food over here and depriving our people of it.
The export of fish from Ireland in 1914 was £451,000, and in 1915 £659,000, a 1871 difference of over £200,000. In 1912 the cattle exports to this country were £8,000,000, and in 1915 they were £15,000,000, a difference of £7,000,000. The Report goes on to state that the figures indicate with sufficient accuracy the importance of the part played by Ireland as a supplier of foodstuffs to Great Britain. I hope that Ireland will continue to occupy that position. Our country is an agricultural country, but I think that during a year of war, when there is a scarcity, and when it is necessary for people to pay fabulous prices for food supplies, the people who have not got the money to pay those prices should not be allowed to starve. We have had one year of it already. I put a question on the Paper to-day which was not reached, and I drew attention to the fact that out of four or five streets examined in the City of Dublin there were sixty-five families in one street living on wages of less than 10s. a week. There is a condition of affairs in a civilised country—a man and his family having to live on less than 10s. a week with potatoes 2s. a stone and with another is for the rent of a small tenement room My hon. Friend knows something of the deplorable condition of housing in Dublin. Imagine a man living on 10s., or £1, or even 30s. a week during the War! I could give many cases. I hope the right hon. Gentleman will see his way to prevent any further food supplies leaving Ireland, whether groceries, provisions, or potatoes, for it is his duty to see that the food required for home consumption shall be kept for the people of Ireland.

§ Mr. DUKE
This is a wholesale proposal for cutting off the Irish producer of foodstuffs from the free market, which I am afraid will cause a good deal of alarm in all sections of his fellow countrymen, for they regard it as a serious proposition.

§ Mr. BYRNE
During the War.

§ Mr. DUKE
The hon. Member spoke of the condition of affairs in 1915, and of the exports of foodstuffs from Ireland. These figures were alarming. As a matter of fact, they denoted the prosperity of Irish agriculturists as well as advantage to England. They were high figures that he gave, but they were of benefit to the whole of Ireland. The hon. Member has made his proposal, but does anybody who professes to speak on behalf of the people of Ireland suggest that these exports of food are not entirely advantageous to the sister country? The hon. Member has emphasised these figures because there is a scarcity of potatoes in Ireland, and he wishes that all the Irish food in Ireland shall be kept for home consumption. The truth of the matter is that in regard to the general commodities to which he has referred there is abundance in Ireland, and in the ordinary course of business it is in the interests of Ireland, as well as England, that there should be a free market. In regard to the scarcity of potatoes, from the time that scarcity began to be apparent Government has been forced vigorously to control their export. The hon. Member speaks of the export of potatoes as though anybody who likes can send them out of the country. Nothing of the kind has happened. There has been rigorous control. It has been resented and protested against by the potato-growers in Ulster. That control will continue to be imposed. As for cutting off Ireland from those markets and impoverishing the masses of the agricultural population of Ireland, I am not willing to entertain that idea either at the dictation of the hon. Member or of anybody else.