MR. THOMAS'S SPEECH

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 133, 3 December 1930, Page 11

MR. THOMAS'S SPEECH

REBUKE BY MR. BENNETT

PREFERENCE DEMAND

United .Press Association—By Electric TdeBniph—Copyright. LONDON, Ist December. • Reviewing tho results of the Imperial Conference, Mr. R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada, who in an earlier statement took exception to the speech made in tho House of Commons by Mr, J. H. Thomas, characterising the Canadian preference proposals as "humbug," emphasised that the delegates separated in tho earnest desire and hope that the Ottawa Conference would enable the discovery of some means of common acceptability for the Empire Economic Association. He added: "Mr Thomas must be taken as having condemned alike a principle which all the Dominions approved, a specific illustration of which was advance^ when a move was made to remove the debates from purposeless unprofitable generalities. "Mr. Thomas condemned it despite the resolutions which the conference passed, despite his own Government's statement of policy, and despite the fact that the Conference had not seriously discussed either the principle of preferences or my own plans to make tli em operative. He also condemned it without offering a positive alternative proposal. I regret to refer to his statement, but there is no other course in justice to Canada and the cause of Empire economic unity, for if the statement indicates the British attitude toward .Ottawa, I have little hope that any agreement Canada may reach with the Dominions will include the United Kingdom. "Time is running against us. If Canada's proposal is to be thus contemptuously rejected, Canadians can only embrace other means at hand of further strengthening her economic position."