MILLION SUBSIDY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18265, 26 December 1924, Page 11

MILLION SUBSIDY.

ALLOCATION UNDECIDED

COLONIAL OFFICE DENIES

REPORTS,

(bt cable—rsr.ss asbociatiox— coprwoHT) (AUEIKAUAK AKD 8.1. CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

LONDON. December 23

Tho Colonial Office emphatically repudiates all anticipatory conjectures as to tho allocation of the £1.009.000 grant for Empire- trade. Tho Government, is not committed to any scheme theoretically or practically. The allocation -will lie solely dependent on tho investigation and report of tho Imperial Economic Committee, not a single member of -which has yet l>con appointed or even consicl&reil. The responsibility for all appointments, apart, from tho British nominees, devolves upon tho Dominions. In tho meantime all statements concerning subsidies, subventions, and preferential licenses, relating to meat, fruit, dairy produce, and other products, aro declared, to be merely the wildest guesswork. Tho present idea is to devote £1,000,000 principally to tho improvement of marketing conditions.

DIRECT EXPORT SCHEME. (redtze's telegbams.) LONDON, December '23. Regarding a report from Sydney that tho British Government lias endorsed, a scheme for licensing the Dominions to export meat to Great Britain in .n quantity sufficient to make up the homegrown deficiency, it is learned authoritatively that, while tho Government is sympathetic towards the scheme, a definito decision is unlikely until the matter has been considered by tho Commission which is enquiring into food prices.

Mr Hassan explains that ho cabled privately that he regarded Mr Baldwin's speech as an endorsement of the Australian Meat Council's scheme. The Council, apparently, concluded that the scheme had been adopted and its views were then cabled to London.