EFFECT OF A FAILURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20725, 19 November 1930, Page 10

EFFECT OF A FAILURE.

In Sir 11. Page-Croft's hope about the political effect in Britain of the failure of the Imperial Conference there is a suggestion that what has happened is a blessing in disguise. Memory of the failure, and a realisation of what it means, may turn thousands of votes at the next general election in England, and place in power a Government prepared to establish the trade partnership across the seas that Mr. MacDonald so wantonly refused to consider. Britain needs a change in fiscal policy, in order to safeguard vital industries, a policy best introduced as part and parcel of a full scheme of Imperial preferences, and a recognition of the blunder made by her present Government should hasten this change. Indeed, nothing seems so likely to bring it about as a sense of disappointment at this throwing away of a golden opportunity to introduce it. Sir 11. PageCroft, authoritatively pledging the* unanimous support of the Conservative Party to Imperial preference, hopes that it will be in office by the time tho Economic Conference meets in Ottawa. If so, there can be 110 doubt as to what that conference will do, and it will be pleasant to think that tho putting of its decision into effect, so far as Britain is concerned, will be in the hands of a Government fully sympathetic and competent. It is known that some leaders in the British Labour Party have leanings toward protection, but any associated welcome to a fully Imperial preferential tariff would not have been more than halfhearted.y In these circumstances, the scheme could not have had any assurance of being thoroughly adopted and worked, and might have been anything but a success. On (he oilier hand, should the Conservatives be returned with a mandate to introduce an effective scheme, there will be no room to doubt the result. A revival of trade will come to Britain and an era of prosperity be enjoyed by the whole Empire.