ENGLAND’S NEW DUTIES

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11985, 27 February 1932, Page 5

ENGLAND’S NEW DUTIES

WILL OPERATE MONDAY LAST-MINUTE RUSH. United Press Assn — Bv Electric Telegraph—Copyrigb t. LONDON, February 26. The Import Duties Bill will receive Royal assent on Monday and the duties will be chargeable aftet 5 p.m. on Monday. There has been a heavy rush of foreign imports during the last few days. The Port of London’s wharves are crowded and wharf labourers at many ports have been working night and day.

Denmark and Holland are sending record quantities of condensed milk; every available shijj is being used to land German potatoes. Manchester this week received 20,000 tons of general cargoes above normal. Ships in every sea within possobility of reaching ports by Monday have been ordered to make full speed to Britain and land at the first available port if unable to reach their normal destination. Shipowners are taking out insurance against delays of cargoes, paying premiums up to half' the duties leviable thereon. THE BILL PASSES. LONDON, February 26. In t 1 1 c Commons, Air Attlee moved a new clause in the Import Duties Bill to provide that the duties would be withdrawn from any industry failing to reorganise itself i» accordance with the Board of Trade’s requirements. This was rejected by 356 to 46 votes. Mr Chamberlain, replying, declared that the emptiness of the Labour benches throughout the debate showed that whatever Labourites said, they were sanguine in the hope that the Bill would remove the whole subject from the field of controversy. The British worker was a protectionist at heart and recognised the only chance of maintaining the standard of life was bv the same protection as other nations enjoyed. The future historian would mark the passage of the Bill as Britain’s beginning of a new catger. Hand in hand with its own possessions and sister countries within the Empire, it would become a central figure of a great economic federation, wide and strong enough to withstand any checks to her fortunes in the future, i Bill , passed the third reading by 44l votes to 62 votes midst wild Conservative cheering. Air Neville Chamberlain was given an ovation as he re-entered the Chamber