TRADE BOYCOTT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 13

TRADE BOYCOTT

EFFECT ON LANCASHIRE

QUESTIONS IN COMMONS

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received 20th March, 11 a.m.)

RUGBY, 25th March,

The Indian boycott and the effect on the Lancashire cotton industry was discussed in the House of Commons tonight when Captain D. H. Hacking (C), member for Chorley, maintained that the Irwin-Gandhi agreement had not eased the situation. Lancashire did not deny the right of India to advertise her own goods or to engage in certain forms of propaganda to increase their sales, but he contended that Lancashire goods did not in the main compete with Indian manufactures. Competition with Indian mills came mostly from Japan, against whom a boycott, if it were really economic, would be directed. INDIAN TEXTILE SUPPORT. He had been informed that both boycotting and picketing were supported by those closely connected with the Indian textile industry. It was designed not to improve the material conditions of India as a whole, but actually to place fortunes in the pockets of the comparatively small number of Indian mill owners at the expense of many millions of Indians who would have to pay more for their goods. Commander Ken^orthy (Lab.) also emphasised this point, and strongly criticised also the conditions in Indianowned mills, expressing the hope that the natural feelings of nationalism and patriotism of young Indians would not be successfully exploited in such a way. PLEA FOE, FREER TRADE. Sir Herbert Samuel (L.) contended that freer trade between Britain. and India was really in 'the interests of India itself as a whole, and he expressed the hope that the Indian Government and the Indian Legislature would not be deterred from adopting the policy of freer trade in the interests of the Indian people, merely because it worked out to the advantage of Lancashire. He trusted that the Indians would put aside this weapon of pressure which had been adopted in order to secure a more satisfactory settlement of the constitutional issue. On both sides coercion ought to be abandoned —the possibility of military pressure on this side and of economic pressure on the other side. MINISTER'S REPLY. Replying to the debate, the Secretary for India, Mr. Wedgwood Benn, saiil that the settlement reached between the Viceroy and Mr. Gandhi would be recommended to the National Congress at Karachi in the next few days. Three weeks was an insufficient time to appraise its effect. As far as he was aware, the clause in the agreement regarding picketing was being implemented. The settlement clearly In id down that pressure and coercion should cease, and that the boycott of British goods as a political weapon was to be discontinued. .It was his belief that those who entered into the agreement desired honourably to discharge their obligations under it.