OPPOSITION TO QUOTAS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21243, 15 August 1934, Page 11

OPPOSITION TO QUOTAS

AUSTRALIAN STAND BRITISH COMMENT ON MR LYONS'S SPEECH CRITICISM OF PROTECTIONIST POLICY (snitsu ntEfli i.-'-HK i.m !<"<:* i;y tuxiuio IELBOSAVII COI'YRIGIIT.) (Received August 14, 10.50 p.m.) LONDON, August 14. The "Daily Telegraph" says: "In the Australian Prime Minister's policy declaration the blunt announcement that Australia will never willingly accept a restriction of production stands out. At the present time there are negotiations for the salvation of our beef, and urgent demands for the regulation of imports of butter and cheese; yet no impatient pressure has been put on the Dominions. "Mr Lyons has to fight on two fronts— against the Country party and Labour. The first is prepared to let in British manufactures free in return for the British market for Australian agriculture, but Labour would raise the tariff to the highest level against all manufactures, yet oppose any protection on our side. Mr Lyons has taken a middle course. "In return for a reasonable opportunity of competing in the Australian market Britain buys 90 per cent, of Australia's butter, 95 per cent, of her wine, and 75 per cent, of her fruit, to. say nothing of mutton and wool." The "News Chronicle" says: "There is nothing surprising in Mr Lyons's announcement, which is one more illustration of the radical incompatibility of the two great aims of protectionist policy. It is possible to encourage Dominion trade and possible to check it, but not to encourage and check it at the same time."