THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22136, 14 December 1933, Page 9

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

NEWFOUNDLAND BILL SECOND READING CARRIED. LONDON, December 13. (Received Dec. 13, at 10 p.m.) Mr J. H. Thomas, moving the second reading of the House of Commons Bill to carry out the recommendations of the Royal Commission in respect to Newfoundland, said the Government had first first examined the question of the sale of Labrador, but rejected it because nobody would pay the price that Newfoundland thought it was worth. It next considered linking Newfoundland with Canada, but Newfoundland was opposed to that, and Canada was not enthusiastic. Major C. R. Attlee (Lab.) moved the rejection of the Bill on the ground that it imposed an unjustifiable burden on British taxpayers. Mr Malcolm MacDonald, in replying, said that the Government was coming not merely to the-rescue of the bondholders but to the whole of the distressed population, just as it would have to do in the case of Australia, South Africa, or Canady in similar difficulties, though this was unlikely to be regarded as a precedent. The Bill passed the second reading by 250 votes to 42.