FISCAL AUTONOMY

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 15

FISCAL AUTONOMY

DOMINIONS WOULD RESENT INTERFERENCE EMPIRE FREETRADE HOT PRACTICABLE (British Official Wire Jaw.) Pre*« Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY,' February 28. The strong opposition of the Conservatives to the recently-formed United Empir-r Party, conducted by Lords Rotherniere and Beaverbrook, with Empire Freefcrade as its basis, continues, and last night Mr OnnsbyGore, Colonial Under-Secretary in the late Government, said that in no circumstances could he join the new party or support its policy. That policy, he said, had not received the support of a single Government or a single leading statesman in any part of the overseas Empire. Great Britain’s dominions were all determined to become industrial manufacturing countries, and were no longer content to lie regarded merely as producers of raw materials, and they would not tolerate outside interference with their iiscal autonomy. As to the colonies, he pointed out that in Ceylon, Fiji, Rhodesia, Cyprus, Malta, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Barbadoes, Jamaica, Trinidad, British Guiana, British Honduras, and the Mauritius determination of the fiscal policy rested with the unofficial members of the local Legislatures, and not with the Colonial Office; but even in the more directly controlled cClomes there would be most dire results and reactions if, by Government action at Home, the wishes of the local inhabitants were overridden. Freetrade within the Empire, in the now party’s sense of the term, would destroy the free port of Singapore within a year. Such a policy was impossible for British Malaya, whoso trade was in rubber and tin, winch could produce no foods for itself, and must trade with all the world. The same consideration applied to the Gold Coast, which provided half the world's supplies of cocoa, and therefore required foreign markets wherever chocolate was consumed. In the whole of the Britisli West African Colonies an Empire Freetrade policy would do infinite damage to one of the most valuable and increasing markets for British manufacturers. Any future Imperial trade policy must, in Ids view, follow the example of many of the dominions in making specific mutual arrangements, limited to two or more individual parts of the Empire, instead of seeking to use artificial uniformity.