MR CROOKS'S IMPRESSIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 63

MR CROOKS'S IMPRESSIONS.

WHAT THE COLONIES ARE THINKING. PREFERENCE POOH-POOHED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 21. A few weeks ago, when lie was in Melbourne, Mr Will Crooks cabled home a message in which he stated in effect that the desire for preference which theDominions were supposed to possess was a fable. No notice was taken of it aD the time, though colonials in London opened their eyes and wondered how so great a change could have come over the scene.

When Cr Crooks reached England again he was at once bombarded by interviewers, and he gave the Daily News an elaboration of this statement. What of the steadycolonial call for preference? he was asked.

" There isn't any. Preference is laughed* at. My first important meeting in Canada was at the Canadian Club, Toronto. The purpose of such clubs, I may say, is the promotion of feelings of loyalty and anion between their own and the Mother Country. Well, I told them, quoting a great Imperialist organ, that ' their loyalty was strained almost to breaking point for the want of preference.' A huge burst of derisive laughter!" So the cry for preference is bunkum? "Absolute. The reply was: What mora can we get? If we like to foster our own infant industries in our own way, is that any reason why a burden should be put on your shoulders and life made harder for your poor?" Cabled to the other end of the world, this statement seems to have caused great resentment. Within 24 hours most of the great Dominions were sending their repudiations. While fearing to interfere in a party conflict in England, Senator Sir R. best contradicted that statement flatlv In a speecn at Ballarat he stated tha"t not only was preference the most popular sentiment ,n Australia, but last year it had Ss. a g 0t £mm to British mer "

y shSrao5 h S rao^ n Kf 1 thafc statement as absurd, and South Africa is indignant. Ihe Wellington) correspondent of The Times says Mr Crooks'* statement is a gioss misrepresentation. '"While New Zealand does not think of demanding pretlTh ♦ h l says - ,'J k { ? oomm < jn k »™. lelge that she would welcome an offer if* that direction." v

Mr Crooks is not at all disposed to sav that everything is lovely in the colonic Generally in the towns he has found Ufa is pretty hard, and there is plenty of poverty «I„ Auckland the unemployed had determined to wait on the Prime Minister himself and made it sc uncomforE vl J lu^T- thdt he was afraid to land. Zealand there would not be a land question but, as a matter of tact, it is terribly acute. The old bad habit of giving awaj big lots of land is at the bottom of it And now there is a proposal tc convert such leaseholds into freeholds. And that k, what is going to ruin Sir J. G. Ward'* Cabinet if anything is. The plea ~ erf the worker, on the contrary, is for dose? settlement, to give a chance to the smaft man." "■

The traveller was most impressed by th» vastness of the Empire and its under! crowding:. The earth has not been scratched, and yet everywhere men are lumped in the towns. «« I like New Zealand best of all," he remarked with enthusiasm. "It is a glorious land." Mr Crooks gave the following message ;?2!jP ov e rs ea to the workers of England:— The message from the workmen all over the English-speaking dominion is: 'Get your Budget through ! Limit the power of the Lords. Don't believe the Tory stories of our loyalty being strained. We are firm, and reject with scorn the suggestion we need a preference which would make the lot of your toilers harder.' "■