The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-30

page of hunting In Ireland will not | in any way annoy or embarrass the l British government. Twenty years ago | it might have done so, for then half tho cabinet were fox-hunting squires, but
 now times have changed. Lloyd George and Bonar Law would look on the idea | of mounting q horse and gallopfng across country, with horror. Arthur l Balfour envisages a horse with phi1o- l sophie interest but prefers to best ride a bicycle. The last surviving fox | hunter in office is Walter Long, and | he. as first lord of the admiralty, has | little pretext for interfering in Irish affairs. The British government will | remain calm and unmoved should ev- | cry pack of hounds in Ireland be de- stroyed
 But though the government looks on with indifference at the latest maneu- yer of the Sim Fein party. there are two classes who will suffer from it. The first class consists of the masters of hounds. These are for the most part not 1rishmen (since few Irish land- owners are now wealthy enough to meet the manifold expenses of hunt establishment) but rich Englishmen and Americans, who have settled in
 Ireland because the country is especi- ally well adapted to the sport they love. and are spending considera ble sums of money there.
 Their case has been we'll put by ono of their number. Isaac Bell, an Ameri-
 can who has for 10 years been mas ter of the Kilkenny Hunt. Writing
 to the Sim Fein executive in his neigh
 oorhood. who had ordered him to dis
 continue hunting, he said:
 SIT: Your resolution as to the stop
 page of hunting is to hand. I know noth- Ing or nor do take any interest in poli- ties, and in no way attempt to dictate to you on that subject. But, having de- voted my whole life, energy, and income
 to fox hunting, I am writing to you on subject I understand. For hunting. as carried out by me (and by all M. F. H. s know) is always kept free from all pol ftics. All are equally welcome at meets of my hounds, as long as they conduct themselves as sportsmen.
 Tt has been a hard struggle to keep
 hunting alive throughout the war. An- other year of war would have seen the end of it. It has only just survived. With encouragement and no set-backs, 1t is just possible that in most counties for
 hunting will be in its old form again by next season.
 "1f democratic sport like the chase Is to be used as a political lever, it is the surest of ways to kill it. If you should cast your eye down the lists of Irish packs of hounds, you will see that the ma jority of the masters are sportsmen of long standing, whose first thought has always been the interests of the farming community, and who take no part in pol itics whatsoever. These gentlemen have all been hard hit by the expenses of carry ing on their hunts during the war. If. on the top of this, they get peremptory or ders from your executives to stop hunt ing. I think you will sec that tho ma- jority resign, and as many others have before, go to England and take over mas terships over there.
 Already I see by tho papers that County Westmeath he's lost tho services of its master, who leaves owing to the
 stoppage of hunting. No man is going
 to devote his life, time and money in running a pack of hounds if he is subject to being stopped any time at moments notice in the middle of the season. GAS far as Kilkenny is concerned, I may tell you, gentlemen, that, although you will have no difficulty in stopping me. you will find it no easy job to start
 me again, and you will have to look for another man. am in no mood to be stopped" and ~started' like Ford car, although I am an American.
 "You have one of the fairest counties in the world-its climate and it's pastures for breeding valuable horses and to tempt sportsmen to come over and hunt
  up the nations sport with politics, and drive away from the countryside it's | stanchest friends, the fox hunters? A | thousand Kilkenny farmers will back up l every word I say in this letter, and mean | to do so, too"
 l MT. Bell did we'll to mention the farm l CTS, for they are the other class who l stand to lose by 2 stopping of hunting | and their loss win be a thousand times | greater than that of the masters oi | hounds Horse breeding is great Irish | industry. In 1913 Che last year before the | trade was distracted by war conditions) | no fewer than 36491 horses were exported l to England. These horses are not bred
 on great ranches, but nearly every small | farmer has a mare, or possibly two, which
 he sends to some thoroughbred stallion | The foals are reared, and when they arc four or five years old tho farmer hopes tc | sell them to some dealer or sportsman l from England, as hunters If ho can say | that the horse he is selling is accustomed to the hunting field, 1t adds from $10t | to $0O0 to it's value q remember once chestnut for which he said he had re-
 fused $500. "Won't I hunt him and get double that for him. said he.) Since this Is so, every year about the beginning oi
 February tho hunting fiedl is full of long
 coated. long-legged. four-year-olds plunging and kicking in every direction
 an appalling nuisance until they learn
 the decorum that Is expected of the l trained hunter.
 These are made ready for the English
 market in August or September Of all this opportunity of training, and of the
 sport that goes with 1t, the Irish farmer will be deprived by the Sim Fein edict
 and already his allegiance to Sim Fein
 Is beginning to waver. In Meath the far
 mers have refused to stop hunting; in Westmeath. where the anti-hunting move
 ment originated and where the master
 in acquiescence with it had resigned. a
 largely attended netting of farmers has
 begged him to continue to hunt, and sim
 liar developments are anticipated in other | counties. If the Irish farmer (and three quarters of the men in Ireland are farm ers) begins to suspect Sim Fein Of in-
 difference to his economic: interests, that party may yet have cause to regret its
 anti-fox hunting crusade"
 l Copyright, 1919.)
 Hadn't Much of 8 Story