ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17986, 1 February 1924, Page 12

ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE.

SIR JOHN HANDLES INTERVIEWED.

The Continental cotton-varn markets had something to do with the result of the. general election in England, according to Sir John Scurrah Randies, a distinguished visitor, who was interviewed by a representative of "The Press" last night. Sir John sat for twenty years in the House of Commons as u Conservative, and besides being a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, he has had the of the Eising Sun (Japan) conferred' on him. He sat for ten years as member for West Cumberland, and for a similar period for Manchester Exchange.

Sir John stated that Lancashire had a big market for cotton yarn on the Continent, where it was manufactured into cheap stuff. In fact, the market there was much greater than those of all the Dominions put together, and so it was in the interests of the manufacturers of the yarn to have Freetrade. That explained why Manchester turned over from being strongly Conservative to Freetrade; it found that it was more useful to cultivate the Continental trade than that of the Dominions. The iron and steel manufacturers, of whicti Sir John is one, were strongly in favour of Empire preference, because they sold their goods, especially steel rails, all over the Empire. The late Mr Bonar Law was a steel manufacturer, and Mr Bonar Law was interested in the iron and steel trade. Further, tho Continent was competing in the manufacture of iron and steel with Britain, and there was likely to be still greater competition when tho reparation problem was settled. Nations on the Continent had large populations willing to work for a bare subsistence, while Englishmen were not willing to do that; in fact, they would rather be unemployed tha;i work for too little wagi s. Birmingham had voted for the late Government, because Imperial preference would have a beneficial effect on its hardware trade.

"I very much appreciate the attitude that Mr. Massey took ;;p, when he wis in Britain," said Sir John —"I mean "what he had to say and do. It is a good thing for the Dominion Premiers to let the people in England know what is passing through their minds, instead of restricting their influence to the Cabinets. Mr Massey took a bold and proper course of speaking to the people. He was criticised by people who thought the other way." "There's no law and order there," Sir John Bandies said of China, which country he recently passed through. Things were in such . a state that the merchants of Canton had raised an army of police to protect themselves from robberies and from the Government itself, if necessary. When Sir John was at Fatshan, a town inland from Canton, the contractor, who was building a new hospital, and a school teacher were being held to ransom. The place was in a dangerous state, and a man was shot a few yards away from him. Sir John also travelled in Japan, when he was president of the Inter-Allied Parliamentary Conference. He* thinks that the Chinaman is a better merchant than the Japanese, but he cannot do much with his country in an uproar. "Tou badly need more people in this country," Sir John declared, "and when yon get them you will be very prosperous; you will have more people' to live on." New Zealand, he thought, should support from five to ten million people, but he did not &ee how she %vas going to do it with present labour conditions. The questions of population, and labour were mixed together. The difficulty here was that tho rate of wages made it impossible for an employer to employ a large number of people, with any profit to himself. "Farmers, for instance, had to do manual work on- their own farms to make them pay, while in England there was a reservoir of industry which could be drawn on by an employer. After a tour which has ijielnded Eotoraa. Wanganni, Wellington, Nelson, the Buller Gorge, and the Franz Josef Glacier, Sir John stated that he was far from disappointed with this country. He had never before seen such vegetation as that on the West Coast, and in his opinion the road through the bush to the glacier was enough to satisfy any tourist without a glimpse of the famed glacier itself. Ho did not seem to think that the railway system was as efficient as it might be, and he cited this instance. He left Hokitika by motor-car a quarter of an hour after the train, and after a puncture and a stop for lunch, arrived at Arthur's Pass forty minute's before it.