STILL UNSETTLED

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 11

STILL UNSETTLED

QUOTA CONTROVERSY

BIiITAIN AND DOMINIONS

ARGUMENTS APPRECIATED

STRESS SHIFTS TO CHEESE

' (Special to United Press Association, Now Zealand.) (Received July 29, 11 a.m.) LONDPN, July 28. The Dominions delegates are still being called into daily consultation with British Ministers on various Empire subjects. Mr. Forbes and Mr. Masters spent this morning with the British Cabinet. Britain has also not yet relinquished her endeavour to secure an agreement with the Dominions for the limitation of supplies of dairy produce, though in view of the fight New Zealand and Australia have put up, and the arguments and data advanced regarding the effects which regulation of production will have on these young countries, there is a, less bitter viewpoint .in the Press against them. The Northcliffe and Beaverbrook papers now support the Dominions in the latter's anxiety not to have their output and development disadvantageously affected, and in this respect there is little doubt that Mr. Forbes's statement in" his first speech in London, since reiterated by him and Mr. Masters, that any curtailment of revenue from exports might have repercussions seriously threatening the solvency of the Dominion has had its influence by securing a belter hearing for the Dominions. Today the "Standard" points out that British dealers in foreign bonds' admit that the Governments that should be supported by London loans are confined to the British Dominions, none of whom had defaulted, while outside them had been a widespread default, especially by South America. The fight by Mr. Forbes and Mr. Masters regarding quotas has not yet concluded, but the outlook is more favourable. The chief Press hostility is from the Midlands, Scottish, and South-western parts of Great Britain, where the agriculturists are most strongly grouped. . ; The failure of the World Conference, to arrive at any international unanimous conclusion regarding the raising of price levels of produce appears to have directed attention once again to the • possibilities of concerted action within the Empire. It is now rumoured that the United Kingdom is weakening on the quota for butter, and that Major Elliot has asked for a private conference tomorrow with the New Zealand delegates to discuss a quota on cheese only. At a meeting of farmers at Taunton there was a general demand for the revision of the Ottawa Agreement, the farmers alleging that they cannot live against Dominions competition'in cheese.' Major Elliot has reaffirmed that the matter of concessions in the tariffs on British goods into New Zealand would not meet his requirements in regard to his request for a quota, his concern being the protection of British farmers agaimt excessive importations.