Famine 02 Jun 1917. The winter just past has been most severe, and the denizens of the Dublin slums have had no fires and very little food.
Famine (1917, June 2). The W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 – 1922), p. 10. Retrieved October 10, 2024, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212685414?searchTerm=famine&searchLimits=#
Last week we heard somebody remark that the Irish capital was just recently a most prosperous place, and for general information we place before our readers how economic conditions stand there. For the moment, we do not insinuate that the poor people of London, and other thriving British capitals are not less destitute.
There is, in’ fact,’ a food scandal in Dublin.
For several weeks the poor have been without wholly sugar and potatoes.
The winter just past has been most severe, and the denizens of the Dublin slums have had no fires and very little food.
The exportation of potatoes from Ireland was ostensibly prohibited, but it was only a pleasantry. By the license system, Mr. T. W. Russell has continued the outward flow that makes the nominal stoppage ridiculous.
Nobody can tell on what principle the licenses are granted. Apparently, the military, who never not even in Australia err on the side of economy can demand what quantity they like, not only from the immense forces that loaf in Ireland, but for those elsewhere.
Furthermore, the Ulster potato exporters, enjoy, to all appearances, a free hand.
Organised Hunger.
Public opinion is kept as ill-informed as possible on the point. A list of the potato exportation licenses should be published every week to let the public of Ireland see the matter in its true light. Says a leader- in a prominent Dublin periodical: “It may not be too late yet to save ourselves from such a state of catastrophe and disaster as is ravaging Russia. But the Lord Mayor of Dublin has already warned those in high places that a stage is being reached when there should be a public grant for the relief of the foodless poor.
The English lower classes secured by munificent wages and an abundance of employment, can meet the rise in prices. In Dublin work is scarce and wages comparatively low.
The game of reducing the people to idleness, penury, and starvation is too systematic to be purposeless.”