IMPERIAL TRADE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1919, Page 5

IMPERIAL TRADE

REFERENCES IN THE DEBATE

NEW SPIRIT REQUIRED,

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, Ist May. Sir Donald M'Lean, resuming the Budget debate, said that ' the great spending Departments, which had been spreading devastation throughout the country, must be curbed. The late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain had said that complete Imperial preference would invariably entail taxes on food.

Mr. Austen Chamberlain interposed : "The Government does not intend to impose new food taxes."

Sir Donald M'Lean, continuing, stated that a great trade with the overseas Dominions could not be developed without granting preference on corn, meat, and wool. He regretted that he must fight the proposal.

Mr. L. C. M. S. Amery (Under-Secre-retary of State for the Colonies) defended the Government's proposal, and said that this was not a direct issue between Free Trade and Protection. It was a question whether we regarded the Empire as a unit, and whether we were willing to promote, intercourse, understanding, and development, thus strengthening the Dominions. It was a worthy policy to carry out, irrespective of old party divisions. We were entering upon *a new period in the Empire's history, and ought to deal with industrial, social, and economic problems in a new spirit, aiming at a wider unity.