HOMELAND POLITICS

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 October 1931, Page 7

HOMELAND POLITICS

PREMIER’S STRENUOUS TIME SESSION PREPARATIONS [OFFICIAL WIEELESS.] RUGBY, October 30. Tire Prime Minister left Downing Street, this afternoon, for Chequers, where he remains until Sunday evening. He has had an extremely strenuous fortnight, while engaged in one of the hardest fought contests at the election, and at the same time, giving necessary attention to the affairs of State. There is the wish among his political friends that he should take as much rest as possible before the opening of the Parliamentary session on Tuesday w r eek. Mr MacDonald’s first public pronouncement following the election will probably be at the Lord Mayor’s banquet on November 9. He is expected to be engaged most of next week considering the reconstruction of the Cabinet, for which purpose he will be in close touch w’ith Mr Baldwin and Sir H. Samuel. There will be a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday. CABINET RECONSTRUCTION. LONDON, October 30. Mr MacDonald is preoccupied with the reconstruction of the Cabinet. All the present Ministers are formally resigning, in order to give the Prime Minister a free hand.

It is being suggested that Mr Snowden may be Lord President of the Council in addition to being raised to the Peerage. A SHORT SESSION. LONDON, October 30. The coming session of Parliament is likely to be short. No emergency tariff will be introduced as a close inquiry will be necessary. One of the earliest problems is to counteract dumping, which has been partly checked by the depreciation of the pound sterling. STATE OFPARTIES (Rec. October 31, 11 a.m.) LONDON, October 30. With only three returns outstanding the state of the parties is as follows: Conservatives .. .. 469 National Labour .. .. 13 National Liberal .. .. 65 National Independent 14 Labour 51 Liberals 7 Others 3 A record number of lawyers is in the new House of Commons, 136, including thirtytwo King’s Counsel. Mr. Snowden had a long audience with His Majesty. HOW UNEMPLOYED VOTED. LONDON, October 30. The newspapers draw attention to the Conservative successes at places where there is heavy unemployment, for instance Burnley, where Mr Henderson was beaten decisively and where 33.7 of the electorate are unemployed. Similarly, Blackburn ’ returned two Conservatives in the places of Labourites, and 48.8 of the electorate are also unemployed.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS RUGBY, October 30. Polling in the municipal elections takes place on Monday. The Parliamentary elections overshadowed- the local contests, but in many instances vigorous campaigns are being conducted by the opposing parties. In the provinces, one-third of the membership of the Councils will be renewed but in the case of the 28 London boroughs, all members are re-elected at one time. In London about 2,700 candidates have been nominated for over 1300 seats. The main issue everywhere is economy. EMPIRE TRADE CONFERENCE. LONDON, October 29. A “Sun” correspondent says that he gathers that an Inter-Imperial Trade Conference will probably not be called before the middle of 1932. He says: “The Dominions must therefore begin afresh, because the new National Government’s Imperial trade policy will be entirely different from that for which the Socialists brought Dominion representatives’to London, principally to waste time. The whole Imperial trade outlook has changed in the past forty-eight hours.” “The Times’s” political correspondent emphasises that if Mr. Bennett renews the invitation to hold an interImperial trade conference at Ottawa in 1932, the National Government will accept.

Newspapers feature the Empire aspect of the election, several dwelling on the necessity for the early re-sum-moning of the Imperial Economic Conference.

The Australian Press Association learns, however, that it is unlikely that the conference will meet within six months. While recognising and sympathising with the pressing call of increased facilities for Empire trade, Downing Street points out the actual operation of British preferential tariff as a quid pro quo for reduced duties on British products to the Dominions, is too complicated a question for politicians to attempt to solve themselves. Regarding this aspect it is recalled that many months of preparatory work was necessary for last year’s conference. OTTAWA, October 30. Mr Bennett plans to reconvene the Imperial Economic Conference in May or June of next yeqr. The New Zealand political situation and the session of the Imperial and Canadian Parliaments, would prevent a meeting earlier than that date. MR. FORBES’S DENIAL' WELLINGTON, October 31. A complete denial that he proposed the calling of the Imperial Conference at an early date, as reported in a cable message from London was given by the Prime Minister (Mr. Forbes) when questioned upon the point yesterday. Mr. Forbes said his opini'on was that any reference to the Imperial Coni'ference at such early date was decid-

edly premature. In any event he would not be one to bring up the question for any proposal should first come from Downing Street. EMPIRE CURRENCY, LONDON, October 39. The Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic correspondent understands that an unofficial committee, including some of the greatest financial experts, are investigating the question of an Empire currency with a view to sending a memorandum to the Government. The same paper has. an editorial welcoming the prospect of closer Empire co-operation, and points out that the British Government, for the first time, will participate, in an economic conference, completely untrammelled by doctrinal commitments.