The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-27
RURAL AREASOF NEUTRAL FIRE !.
 FACE BLACKOUT.
By ,. EDWARD MURRAY fEY..aSaa m,@.~ GknNa fynwan@v.nvas1 a nv,

United Press Stan Correspondent)
 Dublin (UP)-The pincn of wal has brought the blackout to neu- tral Fire.
 The fact that the rural areas oi Southern Ireland will be almost as dark as the blacked-out, belliger- ent London this winter is a conse- quence of wartime shortages which have spread across the Irish Sea, thereby all but spelling Fire as haven from wartime scarcity and confronting 9ts inhabitants with their worst winter since the war began.
 The refugee from Britain's war pared economy who escapes to Fire for @ fortnight expecting to cash in on the lush plenty of 8 country at pease immediately finds short- ages from butter through soap to Scotch whisky. The furloughed AL lied soldier, vacationing British war; worker or steak-hungry war corre- ,spondent can still fatten up in Fire, but the four-year racket of mailing eggs, chocolates and silk stockings to friends in England or elsewhere is all but ended. Fire has clamped down because she herself is pinched.
 Southern rreland's most serious shortages, as ascertained from con- versations with Irishmen from the Ulster border to the Lakes of Kil- larney, are gasoline and kerosene,
 It is lack of kerosene, coupled with a shortage of candles, which confronts the rural Irishman with virtual blackout. Kerosene is al- most unobtainable. Candles are not only scarce but expensive. And Fires national power grid on the Shannon River has still to be ex- banded into a rural electriflcation system.
 Irish farmers visiting Dublin and one I visited on his ranch in County Kerry near Killarney tolc me they expected to spend the long winter evenings totally without light or, at best, around one small can- dle in the living g-room.
 Lack of gasoline is no less i'm. portant. This shortage has revolu. tionized the country's transporta- tion system, literally putting 1t back to the horse and buggy days. Dub. lin has far more horse-drawn cars traps, gigs, carriages, wagons and bicycles than 1t has motor driver vehicles. Other towns and the high ways in between present the same picture.
 At least 200 of the taxis in Bel fast are powered by house gas con- tained in large rubberized canvas balloon tanks on top of the car. Ano this device for keeping motor-cars running is spreading to the south.
 Other results from the gasoline shortage include exorbitant taxi fares, bus queues rivaling anything in London for length, and an active black market for petrol. Both Northern and Southern Ireland taxis carry a sign above their me- terS saying the fare charged will be double that showing on the me- ter. When I asked the cabby why the fare from @ Dublin hotel five blocks to the station was 30 cents he blurted, What do you expectT I have to pay twelve-and-six $2.5O) for petrol on the black market"
 Other shortages, which one Dub. liner lamented by saying, "We might as well be in the bloody war;" include coal, farm machinery tea, bacon, soap and animal feed.
 Lack of coal has reduced railroad schedules, made the trains slower because of poor quality fuel, and increased the activity in the peet or turf fields. Lack of animal feed has resulted in @ law requiring the cattle-ranching Irishmen to till at least one-quarter of their tillable holdings for the first time. Unavail- ability of farm machinery renders 1t difficult to make the new farm- ing scheme profitable, and has sky reelected the price of horses.
 The tea-loving Irsh manage some- how to get the commodity, but the "smugglers' express" which runs between Belfast, where tea is more plentiful, thanks to imports from England, across the Fire border to Dublin is virtually a tea train. The tea is smuggled, among other places, in hip pockets and in long, narrow cloths bags wrapped around the dummies of golden -haired little girls whom the customs officials don't bother to search.
 These shortages, coupled with the shortage of tourists resulting from them, which affects many resort towns, and shortage of jobs which makes the unemployment problem in Fire serious, have made the Fire. man as anxious for the war to be over as the resident of London ol Chicago.