BRITISH ELECTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18564, 23 November 1923, Page 9

BRITISH ELECTION.

SPATE OF OKATOBY.

TARIFF AND FOOD TAXES.

PREMIER DISPELS BOGEY.

ANSWER TO MR. ASQUITH.

1910 TACTICS RECALLED.

Br Telecraph—Fress Association—Copyright (Received 8.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. Nov. 21. "Hie floodgates of election oratory are agape, and constituencies are swamped with arguments for and against a tariff and for and against a capital levy. There is also a torrent of literature; the Union--Ist Central Office alone has already despatched 30 tons of election matter to the constituencies.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin at Reading, Sir Robert Home- at Glasgow, and Mr. Austen Chamberlain and Mr. L, C. M. S. Amery at Birmingham, were the principal advocates of tariff reform to-day, while Mr. Lloyd George, from the Opposition standpoint, had the day practically to himself. , Mr. Baldwin, at Reading, was greeted by a crowded meeting singing "Keep the Home Fires Burning." Replying to Mr. Asquith's charge that the election was being rushed, Mr. Baldwin said that Mr. Asquith had evidently forgotten 1910, wh?n he only gave the electors three weeks to decide a most important matter. In an illuminating passage, Mr. Baldwin explained 'the reasons the Government had decided not to tax essenti?! articles of food: — Firstly, the country ' having become under Free Trade an industrial country, it was unable to feed its own people and so prices of food might rise. Secondly, there had come from the Dominions no offer of preference which would involve the imposition of a food tariff in Britain, If an extremely advantageous offer was made in regard to preference for British manufacturers, and if the offer was a reasonably good, one with regard to Britain's export trade, it might be possible to lay it before the country, but at the present there was nothing of the kind to justify the Government taxing food supplies.

LADY ASTOR'S POLITICS.

SUSPECTED BY HER PARTY.

POPULARITY IN PLYMOUTH.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. CRecd. 9.5 P.m.) LONDON. Nov. 21.

Amazing scenes were witnessed at a meeting addressed by Lady Astor at Plymouth, in a hot Communist quarter of the town.. Though only supposed to be a small ward the meeting hall was packed two hours before the meeting began. The crowd was so dense that Lady Astor had to climb through a window to enter the hall. •

The " Imperial Conservatives " of Plymouth are not opposing Lady Astor, though they have issued a manifesto describing her as a nominal Conservative whose views and 'actions render her politically unacceptable to large numbers of lifelong Conservatives..

BRITISH LOAN OFFER.

REFUSAL BY QUEENSLAND.

FREE TRADERS MAKE CAPITAL.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 9.5 p.m.) BRISBANE. Not. 22. The Premier of Queensland, Mr. E. G. Theodore, has refused the offer of British loans for immediate public works on the grounds that 75 per cent, of materials required by Queensland am obtainable in Australia. Hence he is unable to satisfy the conditions of such loans by purchasing materials from English manufacturers. <Becd. 10.30 p.m.} LONDON. Nov. 22.

The Daily Chronicle gives prominence to a cablegram from Melbourne, stating that Mr. Theodore has informed Dr. Earle Page that he is unable to accept the British Government's offer of financial assistance to carry out development works necessitating the purchase of material in Britain. The Chronicle comments that this mean? that Australians so far are turning down the famous second resolution of the Economic Conference. Thus the Baldwin Government's vaunted machinery for developing trade and industry in Britain and for Empire unity is already breaking down. Well may the other part of it, a tariff and preference, be shaky.

LORD LEVERHULME'S VIEW.

OPPOSED TO PROTECTION.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 8.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. Nor. 21. Viscount Leverhulme has arrived here en route to New Zealand and Australia, for which he sails on December 2, by the Niagara. Me predicts the failure of Mr. Baldwins protection programme stating that it would cause more unemployment in Britain. He declared that Britain would pay her war debts irrespective of what other nations would do, but the United States' tariff-wall" made it very difficult for Britain to meet her debt obligations.

LORD B. CECIL EXPLAINS.

FAIR TREATMENT FOR TRADE.

Renter.. ~ LONDON. Nov 01. Lord Robert Cecil denies rumours of his resignation, and declares that as long as £he Cabinet supports the League of Nations he will gladly co-opera e He was alwavs a Free Trader but that did not mean" it was no part of his duty to assist in obtaining fair treatment for British experts in foreign markets. Ino Government should be given liberty to produce economic proposals.