IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 18

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

MR MACKENZIE KING’S VIEWS. OTTAWA, May 15. “ Canada has given preference in her own interest, as well as what she conceived to be in the interest of the rest of the Empire,” declared the Prime Minister (Mr Mackenzie King) in correspondence with the Baldwin Government during the sittings of the Imperial Conference, which was published to-day. in a letter to Sir Philip Lloyd Graeme, then President of the Board of Trade, Mr King stated that it had never hitherto in the case of the United Kingdom been made conditional on a grant of equal preference in return. Should the British people decide at any time that it would he in their own interests, and what they conceive as the interests of the Empire to make far-reaching changes in their present fiscal policy Canada would naturally expect in the establishment of a tariff that full and adequate consideration should be given through preference duties to the interests of Canada’s producers, and the substantial preference which Canada accords British goods. The Prime Minister outlines some of the chief Canadian exports to which effective preference would he of most value, and especially mentions wheat. WEST INDIES INCENSED. KINGSTON (Jamaica), May 15. Public opinion here is strongly against the British Government’s attitude on the question of preference. The newspaper The Gleaner, in discussing abolition of the M’Kenna duties, says: “That if this Labour Government continued in office to the end of the year, with the prospect of being returned again, the West Indies would begin to negotiate reciprocity treaties with any nation which offers us satisfactory terms for similar terms granted them.”