OUT-AND-OUT TARIFF

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 121, 18 November 1931, Page 9

OUT-AND-OUT TARIFF

AMERY CLAIMS MANDATE

THOMAS TOUR CRITICISED

LONDON, 16th November. ■ In the House of Commons, Mr. L. C. M.' S. Amery (Conservative) said that tariffs must be the foundation of the Government's task. A mandate had boon given, and it demanded prompt action. The economic situation was still very serious, and if the Government suspended action until February a crash might come in the interval. The postponement of the Imperial Economic Conference was justifiable only if Parliament immediately decided what duties it would adopt arid what offers it could make to tho Dominions. . • '

"Negotiations'should bo opened before 31st December in order that agreements could be ready for confirmation by the Imperial Conference. If -Mr.'-J. B. Thomas tourod the Dominions without a plan ho would be

told that tho journey was useless. The Dominions did not want more talk and more hot air.

If there was going to bo an emergency tariff, it would be better in December than in February.

EARLY CONFERENCE,

Mr. H. L. Boyce (C), an Australian, said that Mr. Amery and not Mr. Thomas should have been chosen to represent tho Government at the Imperial Conference. It was a mistake, he considered, to delay tho Conference until July. The majority of the Dominions wanted it early in the New Year, and so did the members of tho House. '~■'..

Personally, he could not help feeling that the delay was not unconnected with Mr. Thomas's desire to visit the Dominions. Whatever the object of the tour the House should have the assuranco that the appeal Mr. Thomas was going to make to tho Dominions was different from that to the Dominions' Ministers when they were in Britain. Mr. Boyce, continuing, said the Dominions' viewpoint already was known. Australia was pressing for an earlier Ottawa Conference, and tho opinion of the successive New Zealand Governments had never been doubtful. The Address-in-Re-ply was agreed to without division: