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ables to receive Lord Aberdeen, when he
comes to inaugurate the Exhibition to the
blare of British military bands. Lord
Drogheda scuttled some weeks ago, and now
Sir Thomas Drew has withdrawn his name
and left the Art section to shift for itself. He
diplomatically describes his action as due to
the pressure of private engagements, but it is
only a blind man who refuses to see the sun
at noonday, and his significant statement that
an appointment will prevent him being present
at the opening ceremony tells its own tale.
Mr. Barton M‘Guckin contributes a curious
letter to the Press in regard to the action of
the Chief Executive Officer in substituting a
military band for the choir and orchestra at
the opening ceremony; and a Dublin firm rubs
it in by explaining that the large order given
to a Kilmarnock house for fire-extinguishing
appliances could have been executed in
Dublin, but Irish manufacturers were not
invited to quote prices. The Executive
Committee are not likely to sleep well 0’
nights for the next few weeks, nor have they
even the prospect of a Royal visit and a
shower of knighthoods to solace their troubled
souls.
How England gets Even . .
Whether it is that the London Daz'[y
Exywess does not relish Mr. Arthur Griffith's
exposure of the tactics of its special corres-
pondent in forging an interview, or has
discovered that Sinn Fein is too big a thing
for it to tackle, we do not profess to know:
but for the present at any rate, it has dropped
Ireland like a hot coal, and left the boycotted
English trader to shift for himself. And that
down-trodden individual, considering every-
thing, is managing remarkably well. If he
cannot beat Sinn Fein honestly he is making
a bold bid to do it dishonestly, and howling
about the injustice of boycotting, practices
the art himself with consummate dexterity.
Mr. H. Liddell, the Unionist member for
VVest Down, and one of the biggest linen
manufacturers in the county, in connection
with a suggestion made by Mr. Kier- Hardie
that all Irish-woven damask should be
labelled to that effect, pointed out that Irish
manufacturers were quite willing to do so,
but were prevented by the English merchants
to whom they sold their goods, the inference
April 18th, 1907'.
being that the Englishman would not buy
Irish damask if he could get any other kind.
That is one side of the question, and the
other is shown by the discovery of the secre-
tary of the Dublin Industrial Development
Association of imported articles figuring as
Irish-made, in Dublin shop windows. As we
ventured to prophecy last week, they have
come in with a rush, and in a form calculated
to deceive even a wary purchaser. VVho
could see a fraud in notepaper marked
“ Royal Irish linen,” or perfume manufactured
by the “ Irish Floral Perfumery Co." of Dub-
lin and London? The wares of this com-
pany, which, by the way, is wholly mythical,
are a work of art in themselves. The scent,
we are told, “is made up in small bottles, in
the shape of a ‘shamrock,’ with a shamrock-
shaped stopper, and tied with a dark green
ribbon. The label on it is also cut in the
shape of a shamrock, and bears in the centre
what is supposed to be a harp, around which
there is to be a clustre of roses, lilies, forget-
me-nots, etc." The Glasgow Ifcmla’, a paper
which has lately taken Ireland under its wing,
has discovered that the Industrial Develop-
ment Associations are all “acting under orders
from the Sinn Fein Society’-whatever that
may be-the argument being, of course, that
any attempt to secure even a moderate
amount of fair play for Irish industries is
treason and sedition to the British Govern-
ment. XVe have always urged that it was
England's policy to prevent any development
of Irish industries, but one hardly expected
to find a Unionist paper openly admitting it,
and we commend the statement to those
Ulstermen who delight to enlarge on the
equal rights they enjoy under the Union.
A Question for the Party . .
For the next few weeks we shall be bom-
barded by leader-writers with suggestions as
to how Mr. Asquith should dispose of his
surplus, and the Irish Nationalist Press will
fling millions about with a royal recklessness
permitted only to American Trust magnates
or journalists writing to order in a back-office.
They are divided in opinion as to whether it
should go to the relief of income tax or form
a nucleus for an old age pension scheme, but,
up to the present, none of them have ventured
to put forward the claims of Ireland. That
