FUTURE CONFERENCES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1924, Page 5

FUTURE CONFERENCES

WIDENING} THE PERSONNEL. (REDTER'S TELEGRAM.) Ar T , LONDON,; 17th June. jur. inomas said ifc was worth considering whether it would not help Imperial umty and encourage confidence to invite not only the Dominion Prime Ministers, but responsible leaders of the Opposition to the Imperial Conferences. Jie knew the latter were reluctant, but the opinions he had consulted showed a conviction that some such change was absolutely necessary.in order to make the conferences more effective and more lea .It would only ]cad to disaster to continue with the conferences only to find when they ended that nothing whatever iiad been done. This would lead" to an agitation against tho conferences disastrous to everybody .xe 3 " n m SimoU. £tou% <>PPOsed the •-• Major-General Seely, speaking as an unrepentant Freetrader, begged U,e House to consider long Westing the nrst tour resolutions. It would bo til? gravest rebuff to tSe Dominion! to eject the proposals solemnly" reached at the Imperial Conference, \vhich proposed to do nothing but reduce taxation ..nd cheapen products, just because they wanted to enng to some particular ideY ! An adverse vote would gravely dam-I • ■?*? th 9 *™V°™* «lati«,s ft a moment when gratitude for all we owed the Dominions should make us hesitate to do anything to hurt them ' thaTi/wJO^ 11 -(Labonr) co^ended that it was the business of the Labour hZrts mwV° e?amin6 the' °«gi n °of vf<S i } 5 Vi ew to Preserving the lower andard of civil;sation from the Dr. L. H. Guest, secretary o f the newly-formed Labour Commonwealth group, announced his intention of voting 'or the first four resolutions. He hoped the other Labour members would do so, as a demonstration of their desire and intention to make the British Commonwealth of Nations more united. He' believed the preferences should be coup--ed with some kind of guarantee of conditions of life of the working people. AUSTRALIA'S DESIRE ANALYSED Mr. Thomas quoted Mr. W- M Ifughes as saying that Britain asked for mgh preference, and Australia would not give it unless it was satisfied it would be a good thing for Australia, He said he would quote numerous speeches of that kind, showing that the Dominions were compelled to do as we did and to view these questions from the standpoint of the interests of their own people. Mr. Thomas deprecated the recent tendency to make the general question of Empire development a party issue. He said it would be a mistake to assume that the Dominions' assistance in war was due to any material con- . stdcration. Colonel Wedgwood said tho Labour <

Party seriously believed that the lines on which it proposed to proceed were more likely to secure ihe permanent unity of the Empire than the Conservative policy. On Colonel Wedgwood suggesting that Protection in many colonies and foreign countries had led to corruption and giaft, Sir W. H. Cowan asked the Speaker whether Colonel Wedgwood had the right to make this insinuation against Dominion Parliamentarians. The Speaker replied that he had heard nothing personal. Colonel Wedgwood said he certainly made no personal charge whatever. The debate was adjourned.