NEWFOUNDLAND BILL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 69, 14 December 1933, Page 9

NEWFOUNDLAND BILL

Assistance for Distressed Population SECOND READING i (Received December 13, 7 p.m.) London, December 13. The Dominions Secretary, Mr. J. H. Thomas, moving the second reading in the House of Commons ofythe Bill to cariy out the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Newfoundland, revealed that the Government first examined the question of the sale of Labrador, but rejected it because nobody would pay the price Newfoundland thought it was worth. It next considered linking Newfoundland with Canada, but Newfoundland was opposed to the plan and Canada was not enthusiastic. Major C. R. Attlee (Lab.) moved the rejection of the Bill on the ground that it imposed an unjustifiable burden on British taxpayers. Sir Edward Grigg (C.) suggested that during the temporary suspension of the constitution a couple of representatives of Newfoundland should sit in the House of Commons. There was a precedent in the case of Northern Ireland. Mr. Malcolm Macdonald, Parliamentary Secretary of the Dominions, replying, said the Government was coming npt merely to rescue the bondholders, but the whole of the distressed population, just as it would have to do in the case of Australia, South Africa or Chnada in similar difficulties, though this was unlikely to be regarded as a precedent. The Bill passed its second reading by 250 votes to 42.