ARMS AND OTTAWA

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1932, Page 7

ARMS AND OTTAWA

CONFERENCES LINKED Necessity for Successful Empire Meeting. WAR DEBTS AND ECONOMICS. ("Times" Cables.) (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, May 21. "The Times" yesterday discussed the Disarmament Conference at Geneva and the coming Reparations Conference at Lausanne and Empire Economic Conference at Ottawa. The paper says: "To abandon hope of an agreement at Geneva would be to abandon hope of reversing the present diift to economic stagnation. Confidence will not be restored until the existing political tension has been relieved by an agreement to. regulate armaments. "A substantial step toward disarmament is a necessary condition for the settlement of inter-Governmental debts, which are paralysing trade. If the Geneva and Lausanne conferences fail the world wi'll have to go through further and sharper tribulations before it establishes new equilibriums. "In that event the Ottawa Conference must secure for the quarter of the world under the British flag the means to maintain, even to increase, production and trade. Ottawa has the advantage over Lausanne in that the Governments to participate are accustomed to work together. "After Ottawa the Empire Governments must be able to claim, in the words of Pitt, that the British Empire saved itself by its exertions and that by its example it will save the world." The Acting-Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, stated in the House of Commons to-day that the British delegation to the Ottawa Conference would include the Minister of Agriculture, Sir John Gilmour. Until it was possible to estimate the length of the present Parliamentary session and the Lausanne Conference it would be impossible to say whether two or three of the Ministers given in an earlier list would be available. Mr. Thomas assured a member that the question of migration, as an essential element in Imperial economic cooperation woirttf not be overlooked by the United Kingdom delegation at Ottawa. He stated that lie had now received the agenda of the conference from the Canadian Government. Message from Canada. In an Empire Day message, read at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce luncheon in London to-day, Mr. R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister, said: "In a few months the Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa will form part of our history, and I am convinced a memorable part. The determination evident throughout the Empire to utilise this opportunity to place our economic relations on a mutually advantageous and enduring basis is an assurance that before another Empire Day arrives definite action will have been taken which will contribute materially to the revival of trade and industry in every part of the Empire, and I trust in the re-establishment of confidence and the concerted action necessary for the restoration of prosperity to the world in general."

PREFERENCE ISSUE

ME. BRUCE AND BRITISH STAND (Received 10 a.m.) CANBERRA, this day. In the House of Representatives Mr. S. M. Bruce, Assistant Treasurer, expressed tlie hope that a recent Press cablegram setting out that unless the Dominions granted new and greatly increased preferences to British goods Britain would not re-enact the 10 per ccnt general preference upon Australian goods, did not truly reflect the British viewpoint for Ottawa. If it did it would be necessary to remind the British representatives in no uncertain manner that Australia for many years had been granting British ■roods very substantial preferences without any reciprocal treatment. He did not anticipate that the question would be approached in this spirit by the British representatives. The Australian "overnment certainly would not tolerate it.

BRITISH DELEGATION.

MR. BALDWIN AS LEADER. LONDON, May 24. A message from Ottawa states that the Canadian Government has no information relative to rumours that the Prince of Wales may open the Empire Economic Conference at Ottawa in July. In the House of Commons, Mr. A. Bevan (Lab., Ebbw Vale) said there were rumours that Mr. Baldwin was not going to the Ottawa Conference because he feared it would prove a "white elephant." It was also said that having been associated with one "white elephant" across the Atlantic Mr. Bailwin did not desire to be associated witfh another. How could Argentina pay interest on British- capital if Britain was going to deny her products entry into the world's greatest market? The "Daily Telegraph" says there is no foundation for the suggestion that Mr. Baldwin is not going to Ottawa. Mr. Mac Donald will be back in London before Mr. Baldwin is due to leave as head of the British delegation.