TARIFF CONTROVERSY

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1923, Page 5

TARIFF CONTROVERSY

FREE TRADERS ’VIEWS.:?- ' ' ' • (Australian and N;Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, November 6. ‘ The Hon. J? R. Clynes M.P., speaking at Sunderland, sa’d that Labour was indebted to Mr - Baldwin for hastening the advent of a British Labour Government, for if -Mr Baldwin were empowered to practise his new protection, its failure tp cure tinemployment, which was an qbsolute certainty, would produce' a* national reaction against the futility of Toryism, which would bring Labour into office. Labour recognised free trade would not prevent unemployment, but protection would cause more 1 of it, as the Anti-Dumping Act showed. Trade no' longer followed the flag/. but the current of international ainity. Mr Asquith, speaking at Dewsbury, declared that though conditions; had changed sjnee the last tariff reform campaign, they had changed, in /the direction of strengthening; and riot weakening the free trade' case. He \ believed that the same process of de- ' finite and detailed interrogation which had killed Mr Joseph Chamberlain’s proposal in 1903 would kill Mr Baldwin’s belated half-hearted substitutes. A PRESS COMMENT. LONDON, November 7. The “Daily Express,” defining its attitude on Mr. Baldwin’s proposals says: Firstly, where any British industry is manifestly being destroyed, by foreign dumping, it' ought to be protected immediately, but so far there is no satisfactory proof of industries being destroyed in this way, on any scale justifying a general tariff. Secondly, to carry protection without real preference is to rob the /ariff movement of its soul and its ultimate success. There must be preference on wheat and meat, which ~ the Government so far refuses. The ‘“Daily Express” finally believes that following the collapse of ■ European markets/. a new economic entity for our export trade must be found, largely within the Empire but this market cannot be consolidated without a sweeping measure of , inter-imperial preference. The Prbss generally apart from the strictly party organs awaits fuller . details of Mr. Baldwin’s programme. - '