RESOLUTIONS LOST

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 145, 20 June 1924, Page 7

RESOLUTIONS LOST

MR. BALDWIN'S APPEAL

DEFEAT A "STUPID ACT"

ME- ASQUITH HIGHLY SARCASTIC.

.<XIJi!TBD PRESS. ASSOCIATION COPrKIGUT.)

(SXDNEX SUN CABLE.) ■ '" LONDON, 18th June. In the House of Commons the first , four of the ten resolutions of the Imperial Economic . Conference were rejected.-

The. resolution in favour of Empiregrown dried fruits was rejected by 278 votes to 272; that in favour of wine by 285 votes to 268; that in favour of sugar by 283 votes to 263; and that infavour of tobacco by 284 votes to 27i. The other six resolutions were withdrawn.

Mr. Stanley Baldwin, Leader of the Opposition, resuming the debate, said that European, Japanese, and American, markets were closed rigidly against Britain. • The only countries with which she could-make treaties offering prospects of improving her ] trade were the Dominions. He ex- ! pressed the opinion that the defeat of the .resolutions would not be a breach of faith, because Parliament was supreme in these matters, bui it would be a stupid act. ' Was it not possible to enter into an arrangement with the Dominions by which the enormous quantity of foodstuffs Britain -required might be obtained solely from the Do,'ininions at cost price, and distributed •with the least possible margin of profit?. If the- resolutions as a whole were defeated it would gravely imperil the' future of the Empire. , Mr. I-I. H.,Asquith, Leader of the Liberal Party, said the resolutions were an attenuated, emasculated, anaemic, and even apocryphal version of the fullblooded gospel of Imperial preference. What a conception of the Empire must the people have who believed the. rejection of a resolution dealing with fruits and honey would- -imperil tlyj stability of the Empire! PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH

Mr.' Ramsay - Mac Donald; the Prime Minister,. declared that he did not believe the Australians and the Canadians wanted Britain to change her fiscal system. Preference to Australia meant keeping up the tariff wall, but .lowering it slightly in Britain's, favour as against the foreigner. While grateful to Australia and Canada for taking down one or two bricks in the .wall, they ought not to come to the fallacious conclusion that the Dominions intended Imperial preference as the first step to free trade within the Empire." It had been suggested that the Government \\ns'encouraging trade with foreign countries, like Russia, but. was discouraging trade with its own kith and kin. That was untrue. No one could feel very happy in discussing these preference resolutions. Ho was not happy; ho was much afraid that what was ■ said might be misrepresented in the Dominions.

The Prime Minister referred at length io schemes for assisting emigration to Australia, for ■which Britain was finding large sums. Tho British . Government ■was trying in these days to tying the .Dominions nearer to.the Motherland.

Mr. H. A. L. Fisher'(Lib.) said that Imperial. preference on a grand scale .Was impracticable, but he did not like to turn down tho whole work of the Imperial Conference." He intended to support the first three resolutions. Major A. G. Church (Lab.) said he intended to support the first four resolutions, in deference to the wishes of the Dominions. ■ \ ■

. Mr. Lloyd George was absent, but paired in support of the first four, resolutions," for increasing preference to Empire goods on the existing duties on figs, raisins, plums, currants, tobacco, and wine, and also establishing preference to Empire sugar at one-halfpenny a pound for ten years. ' r- _ ',