OTTAWA CONFERENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21328, 1 November 1932, Page 9

OTTAWA CONFERENCE

METHODS DENOUNCED CANADIAN LIBERAL VIEW BARGAINING DISAPPROVED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received October 31. 5.25 p.m.) MONTREAL, Oct. 30 " The Liberal Party '' sees little -of value, either to Canada or Britain, in the Ottawa agreement, and will continue to stand against it," said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, in an address to members of the Reform Club at Montreal. He condemned the tariff policy upon which the agreement was based, and said ho saw in the arrangement a source of future irritation between Britain and Canada. Mr. King charged the Prime Minister, Mr. R. B. Bennett, with having forfeited the independence of the Canadian Parliament. He declared that the . Economic Conference had hardly begun before haid bargaining was noticeable on all sides. Relations between the several parts of the Empire had hardly been more strained in the last 100 years than they became with the negotiating of the Ottawa agreements. This could have been avoided if the de.egates had met in a proper spirit to bring about freer trade. The conference should have set an example to the world so that greater freedom of trade would take place. Agreements had been reached which it was sought to make binding on the Empire parliaments before those Parliaments had had an opportunity of passing an opinion upon them. The conference was based on the theory of bargaining,* to see how each might- come out best for himself.