SIR JAMES ALLEN

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 81, 5 April 1923, Page 5

SIR JAMES ALLEN

VISIT TO BRADFORD GUEST OF THE WOOL FEDERATION. (rnou our own correspondent.) LONDON, 20th February. Sir James Allen went to Bradford last Friday at the invitation of the British Wool Federatioh, at whose annual dinner he was the principal, guest. The High Commissioner was also privately entertained .by Mr. Walter Andrews, president of the association, who took him over his own top-making and other factories. Sir James was greatly impressed with the specialisation of the wool processes in Bradford. Others pre : sent at the dinner in the evening were: The Lord Mayor (Alderman Thomas Snowden), Lord Barnby, Sir H. Whitehead (president of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce), Sir :W. Bulmer (Halifax), Mr. G. Garnett (vice-president of the Textile Institute and of the Executive Committee of the Federation of British Industries), Mr.' H. . Sutcliffe Smith (president of the Colour Users' Association), Mr. F. Mitchell (Woolcombing Employers' Federation), Mr. H. S. plough, Mr. G. Whittaker (joint chairman of the National Wool (and Allied) Textile Industrial. Council), Mr. F. Holroyd (Halifax), Mr. A. Hill, Mr.. H. H. Duncan, and Mr. W. "Haiiison (secretary).- . - - - ...

Several of these were the ho!\ts of the Prime Minister (Mr. Massey), when he visited the wool centre in 1921. ,

Mr. Holroyd,- proposing "The Houses of Parliament," expressed.the ljone they would tinker as little as possible with the business of the country, but; seriously with the business of taxation. The business community was perilously near the last straw in that respect. The Jiosition in regard to the taxation of machinery was most unfortunate. It seemed that it was within the discretion of a valuer to say whether he would or would not Value machinery. There hid been a new valuation in Halifax, whene the valuer took the^view that machine cry -ought to be taxed. The Halifax cotton industry had to compete with. Lancashire, where there were more areas with untaxed machinery than in Yorkshire. All should be on one footing. Lord Barnby said there never was a period which called for more strenuous and sagacious effort. The world was in a turmoil, and it was of the utmost importance that affairs should be in the hands of level-headed men who would enact measures that would tend to pacification. Interests were now so interwoven that the success or failure of one country was the success or failure of others.

' Mr. Clough, proposing "His Majesty's Dominions," said ..he association of free States which they and the Mother Coun-, try represented was not an empire in the' ancient' military sense. Britishers delighted in the achievement of political equality as between the colonies and England "Our hope is," said Mr. Clough, "that our newest Dominion, torn and wracked as it is to-day with civil strife, will resolve its troubles before long and join the other dominions on an equal status, and enjoy with them the peace and stability for which they are distinguished." "UNITY OF EMPIRE. Sir James Allen did not know whether there was a clear idea in everybody's mind of what dominion meant. There were those* who thought it meant the pressure of the power of force upon those of a different or even the same, race. In the Dominions they were doing their level best to be worthy of the name of Britain. Aftei; paying n tribute to the loyalty of the Maori and other races during the war, when he- was- Minister of Defence in New Zealand, Sir James said the Dominions had the same King as the Old Country, the flag, and the same constitution. What a heritage! There was a time when the Doriiinions were looked upon as a- nuisance and an expense, but that time was past..- New Zealand was rich and healthy, a suitable habitation for men of the Anglo-Saxon breed. A gr.eat responsibility lay upon the race to see that the Dominions should not- only deve'iop their material resources but the traditions of equity, justice, and honest trade. From the point of view of material wealth, where was the Mother Country to look for better aid, for more honest purpose in that aid, than to their own kith and kin beyond the seas? "We have given you preferences in trade of a very c-.xtensive character," said . Sir James, "because we wish to develop trade with you." The day might come vh'en Canada and Australia would have a. population as large as that of Great Britain. In New Zealand there was less room than in those countries, but still there was room for more of the right type; and men who went there | with determination, energy, ability, and ' straight-forwardness would, in ninetynine cases out of a hundred, succeed. As a New Zealander, lie urged upon .Australia, and upon those who had the idea of going there,, the. cital necessity of peopling the vast empty spaces of i that continent. Referring to the growth of ma lufactures in the Dominion, Sir James said there should be no idea of stifling the development of industries. The thing to do Was to fill the Dominions with human beings, whose wants could not for many years be supplied by factories of their own.