OTTAWA CONFERENCE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 153, 14 June 1932, Page 8

OTTAWA CONFERENCE

OPENINC BY KINC DESIRED. SUGGESTION LN CANADA. Christchurch, June 12. The Mayors of 16 of the largest cities in Canada, representing one-third of the population of that Dominion, have enthusiastically endorsed a suggestion that the King be invited to open or close the Empire Economic Conference at Ottawa. Representative opinions obtained in Christchurch are mostly in entire accord with the proposal if suitable arrangements can be made. In a cablegram to the editor of a Christchurch newspaper the editor of the Montreal Herald told of the support for the suggestion in Canada and asked for New Zealand opinion. That the King should open such a conference was quite appropriate, stated Dr. J. Hight, rector of Canterbury College. The action of the King, he said, would emphasise the position of the King as nominal head of the Empire and would not in any way involve him in party or inter-imperial conflicts of opinion.

The conference was of such importance that it seemed worthy of the King’s attendance, declared Mr F. L. Hutchinson, vice-president of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, and the association’s nominee as delegate to the conference. The view expressed by Mr W. Machin, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, was that the conference was not a ceremonial occasion, but an occasion when practical, hard-headed business people would congregate to turn out a working formula for the bringing back within the Empire itself of a proper relationship between money and prices of commodities which had gone all awry. Later on, probably in the autumn in London, when the plan as a whole received the sanction of the Empire generally, would be the time for congratulations and ceremonial.

IRELAND AND OTTAWA. PROSPECTS BLACK. “Times” Cable. London, June 13. “The Times’ ” Dublin correspondent states that Mr de Valera’s attitude has rendered the prospects for Ottawa black, and it would not bo surprising if the Government cancelled the delegation, especially if it withholds the land annuities. IF MR COATES COES LABOUR MINISTER WILL ACT. Christchurch, June 13. Should the Minister of Employment, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, decide to go to the Ottawa Conference after all as one of the New Zealand Ministerial delegates, his portfolio of Employment, which is regarded as probably the most important in the Cabinet to-day, will probably bo taken over by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. A. Hamilton. That information was given to a reporter to-day by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes. Mr Forbes said that no word on the subject of his going had yet been received from Mr Coates, who was taking every aspect of the question into consideration. The change of the portfolio to Mr Hamilton would be convenient to the Government, as the Employment and Labour Departments were now controlled by one head.