BENEFIT FROM NEW DUTIES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20463, 5 February 1932, Page 9

BENEFIT FROM NEW DUTIES.

IMPETUS GIVEN TO INDUSTRY. {csriTED muss ASSOCIATION —BV ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH —COPYBIGUT.) LONDON, February 3. In the House of Commons, Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, moving approval of the duties imposed on December 17th, said that had resulted in many factories in Manchester, Bradford, Nottingham, and Leicester working overtime, while during the past six weeks applications had been received from 250 foreign firms desiring to establish factories in Great Britain. Twenty such factories were already operating. The recent emergency dutieß, with only the temporary purpose of reducing abnormal imports and preventing theni from forestalling the general tariff, had succeeded beyond expectations. A Practical Test. Mr Hore-Belisha said that above all it had shown the public that the tariff experiment should be regarded, not in accordance with abstractions or theories, but from the viewpoint of actual practice. He hoped that to-morrow, when Parliament asked for a change in the fiscal system of the past 85 years, the proposals would be treated in a practical and scientific and not a speculative spirit. Mr A. J. O'Connor said that the emergency duties had had an electrical effect in restoring confidence and reducing unemployment in the Nottingham lace trade. Mr E. S. Lockwood said that the new duties had already reduced unemployment at Bradford by 50 per cent. Mr Hore-Belisha'» motion was carried by 276 votes to 44.