The truth of the matter, and the inference to be drawn from the above
considerations and the whole trend of modern trade, is that to break up
the railway systems of Great Britain and Ireland into two rival and
hostile systems of transit, working for different objects and by
different methods, would be to stop a natural and healthy process of
uniform working and harmony, which has enormously advanced in the last
decade, to the great advantage of Ireland.
Almost every scheme of amalgamation in Ireland has been connected with
the opening or development of a new cross-Channel route, as the history
of the Fishguard and Rosslare and the new Heysham routes fully shows. As
part of this process, English companies, like the Midland and the Great
Western, are either acquiring Irish lines or making special traffic
arrangements with them. Enormous sums have been spent on harbours and
steamers by English companies for the purpose of developing traffic with
Ireland, and the increased interchange of goods has been of great
advantage to both countries. The ideal put forward by advocates of
railway nationalisation and Irish independence, that in respect of trade
and traffic Ireland should be a sort of watertight compartment,
self-supporting and self-contained, is, I submit, a mischievous delusion
which, if put into practice, would undo much of the good progress
Ireland has recently made. Such an ideal would also be the exact
contrary of the line of national development as based on transit and
transport followed in almost every other civilized country. In Germany,
Canada, the United States, and Australia, we see the policy consistently
pursued of amalgamation, consolidation, and facilities for long-distance
traffic, so that between all parts of each State and Empire there shall
be the freest and most perfect interchange of traffic. Canada and the
United States have been so far inspired by this principle as to spend
countless millions first on East and West (and now on North and South)
lines, even before there was traffic to carry, and in order to create
traffic; and the principle has been justified in its results.
From this point of view St. George's Channel and the Irish Sea should be
a means of communication, constant and in every direction, between the
two Islands, and not a sort of boundary ditch to be deepened and
rendered difficult of passage.
If Ireland wishes to share England's prosperity she must not build up a
wall against the credit, trade, and special products of her richer
sister. If England wishes to have and to foster a magnificent source of
food supply, well and strategically secured against continental foes,
she also must do all that can be done to encourage intercourse. To
develop traffic between Great Britain and Ireland is the policy which
both experience and theory point to as advantageous to both countries;
to subvert this policy and make Ireland's commerce local and
self-sufficing, seems to be the narrow and mistaken ideal of Nationalist
aspirations.