DOLLARS FIRST.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 9

DOLLARS FIRST.

SALE OF LABRADOR.

Newfoundland Inclined To

United States.

MONEY BEFORE SENTIMENT

(Australian Press Assn. —United Service.)

(Received 10 a.m.) ST. JOHN, November 2. The sale of Labrador to either Canada or a United States syndicate in the opinion of Sir William Coaker, leader of the Fishermen's Protective Union, and an ally of Sir Richard Squires, will be among the results of the victory of the Opposition at the polls last week. No statement on the matter lias yet been made by Sir Richard Squires. A message from Halifax, Nova Scotia, states that the Opposition victory draws attention to an interview there in July, 1027, in which Sir William Coaker predicted a victory at the next election. He also forecasted the sale of Labrador to American interests, and said that Newfoundland was in no humour to consider confederation with Canada. If the day ever came when they had to consider their destiny apart from the present constitution it would be the United States they would look to.

He said that Newfoundland was coming round to the idea of a State oi the United States, and added that "if a referendum were taken on such a proposal it would be carried by a 75 per cent vote, not because Newfoundland has forgotten the old flag but because the tendency of the times is to consider dollars and cents first.

"Newfoundland would never stand by and see the Old Country trampled on, but when the question to be decided moans no injury to the old flag and more dollars and cents for her people, it is likely that the latter feeling wilj. prevail. It is true that the destiny of Newfoundland with her fisheries, forests and minerals lies in the direction of the United States."

Labrador, the most easterly part of the American continent, is dependent on Newfoundland. After a dispute that took five years to settle, twenty years to prepare, and which cost £200,000 before being decided by the Privy Council in March, 1927, the boundary of Labrador was finally settled. It was, in effect, defined as being the watershed of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, the coastal boundaries being from Blanc Sablon, on the south, to Cape Chidley, on the north. As a result an estimated area of some 110,000 square miles was confined as under the jurisdiction of Newfoundland. Labrador consists of a plateau, rising in places to 2000 feet. The climate, even on the coast, is much too severe to ripen cereal crops, although it lies in the same latitude as the northern part of the United Kingdom. The reason for this is that an icy current washes its shores, and keen the mean annual temperature at 24 degrees Fahrenheit. The Atlantic coast is bold and rugged, and there are a number of fine harbours, and deep inlets. The interior is uninhabited, but along the coasts there is a fringe of settlements. The permanent coast population is about 14,000. Earlier this week a message was received, stating that the Government of Newfoundland had been defeated in the elections by Sir Richard Mcßride's party by a fairly substantial majority.