BRITISH POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3619, 24 July 1923, Page 20

BRITISH POLITICS.

TEIE DYE INDUSTRY. LONDON, July 18. Replying in the House of Commons to criticisms of the Government policy regarding the dye industry, Sir Philip Lloyd-Graeme (president of the Board of Trade) said that manufacturers were now using 80 per cent, of British dyes, compared with 20 per cent, before the war, and this -was being done without reducing the quality. It was not until Britain began to make dyes that the price of German dyes fell. IMPORTANCE OF THE NAVY. LONDON, July 18. Lord Selborne, in the House of Lords, asked whether, in view of the development of submarine and aerial warfare, the Government would refer the question of the bearing of national defence on food production in Britain to the Committee on Imperial Defence. Lord Salisbury (Deputy Leader of the House of Lords) said that one of the subjects to be discussed by the Imperial Conference was the navy upon which in the lon or run we must most rely for our food supply. This country could never be wholly self-supporting in the matter of food, and whatever our fiscal system might be we must in wartime be dependent on the fleet. SOVIET OPPRESSION. PERSECUTION OF GEORGIANS. BRITAIN POWF.RLESS TO INTERVENE. LONDON, July 18. In the House of Commons, Mr Ronald M'Neill (Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), in replying to Mr Philip Snowden (Labour), said he bad no reason to doubt the accuracy of the statements of the executions and persecutions of the Georgian people bv the Bolshevist Government. Deeply as the British Government deplored the outrages, the Soviet had unfortunately established an effective control of the Georgian territory, and the British Government was only too well aware of the uselessness of attempting to influence the Soviet Government diplomatically when unaccompanied by pressure which it had no means of excercising. PENSIONS EXPENDITURE. LONDON, July 19. Mr G. C. Tryon (Minister of Pensions) stated in the House of Commons that the total expenditure of the Ministry of Pensions from 1917 to June 30 last w r as approximately £478,000,000.