LABOUR OPPOSE TARIFFS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 November 1923, Page 5

LABOUR OPPOSE TARIFFS

BRITISH LEADER’S SPEECH. “HOLLOW AND INEFFECTIVE.” Australian and N.Z. Cable Association)

LONDON, November 1. t Mr Ramsay MacDonald was tendert ed a luncheon by his Labour col- ■» leagues. In a speech, he said the most 3 important event since he went to the Levant was Mr Baldwin’s change of ' battle tactics. He was uncertain what Mr Baldwin meant, and as to how far ’ it was Mr Baldwin’s own or the Cabinet’s new policy. He asked, had 3 Mr Baldwin nailed the Protectionist t flag to the masthead or only half-mast t high? Was it to be out-and-out proj teetion or merely point thereof, care- ? fully selected, not to save the country, 3 but to give the Tories a good election 5 cry? The unemployment evil in Britain, - said Mr MacDonald, had lasted four 3 years, but the Conservatives previously 5 had not suggested protection as a ! remedy. Mr Baldwin was like some 1 Labourites who, when they could not see any way out of their troubles, de--1 clared a general strike. Protection was not a cure for unemployment. It merely was a diversion. It was a holi low and ineffective proposition. It was [ magnificient as a method of side- , tracking this serious problem. The comt ing fight, he said, would not be Pro- . teetion v. Free Trade, but Protection ■ versus Labour Policy ! On the whole, he favoured an open market, but, even 1 if they had protection, there still would be all the problems centring : around the Labour programme. The present state of unemployment would 1 nnlv ho minn/linKln 1w Hip rAnnrnf.inn«

J only be remediable ny tne reparations 1 policy, which Labour had advocated for 3 four years. Labour aimed at the de--1 velopment in Britain of the protection J of their own market. Referring to emigration, Mr Henderson said that if the Dominions took Britain’s skilled men and women they (. would weaken instead of strengthen 5 Britain’s vital industries. ’ CALL FOR RESISTANCE. 3 (Reuter.) L j LONDON, November 1. Labour’s considered reply to Mr , Baldwin has been issued in the form > of a resolution adopted by a joint 3 meeting of the General Council of the ’ Trades Union Congress and the Labour ■ Party. It calls on all the Labour organisations and members to resist to the utmost the special arguments of • protection, and to press upon the electorates Labour’s policy of work and wages, with the provision of adequate . maintenance of reserves of industry, to be secured by international reconstruc- : tion and co-operation, national reor- , ganisation, and development, and the . putting into operation of Labour’s gen- ; eral programme to meet the crying 1 social and economic ills, as being the I only alternative to protection. ■ MR BALDWIN’S CAMPAIGN. 1 > (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, November 2. ' Arrangements are completed for Mr Baldwin’s two speeches at Manchester to-day. The huge Free Trade Hall ’ could have been filled five times over. Mr Baldwin is expected to review the question of Empire cotton production. r The Premier said, at Swansea, that It r\ wnc linvi-nrr rl /<1 11 u nF 1 o tniqfF

lie was having the details ot his tanii proposals carefully and thoroughly examined. The “Alorning Post” says this work is progressing, and a committee of the Alinisters will soon be in possession of the details for the protection of home manufactures. A CANADIAN GRIEVANCE. OTTAWA, November 1. The Alontreal “Gazette’s” Ottawa correspondent telegraphs: '“Strong feeling and some resentment has resulted from the Australian Industries Protection League’s representations for an amendment of the tariff, whereby goods containing 75 per cent of British labour and material should receive a preference, instead of 25 per cent, as at present. This is considered a blow against the Canadian export of automobiles to Australia, which has grown phenomenally since it was extended the British preference. There were 4166 automobiles exported to Australia in 1921 and 11,613 for the first six months of the current year. The Canadian automobiles are the product of seven hundred branches of United States plants.” The correspondent declares that Canada will probably take active measures to maintain its rights, pointing out that a large proportion of the British goods enjoying preference from Canada are largely produced in Continental countries and only finished off in Britain.