IMPERIAL PREFERENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14285, 30 April 1917, Page 3

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE.

STATE-SUBSIDISED STEAMERS / SPOKEN OF. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, April 29. The newspapers generally welcome the j Announcement that Cabinet has adopted Imperial preference. The Morning Post regrets that the decision does not include foodstuffs. The Daily Mail says the change has long, been ardently desired, and the fateful decision has nOw been made. The Daily News says Mr Lloyd George is unlikely to be more successful dn avoiding food taxe3 m connection with colonial preference than Mr Chamberlain. The Daily Chronicle regrets that thej highly contentious question of preference was hot left for discussion aftea* the war, and says any alteration of fiscal policy is unfair to our Allies. The Daily Telegraph says the Government's decision will be welcomed far and wide throughout the Empire. There was no meeting- of tlie Imperial conference yesterday. City circles anticipate that .Qne result of; the prefernce decision will -probably be State subsidies for steamshiip line? to assist m the development of Empire resources. MELBOURNE, April 29. * Mr Hughes, commenting on the Imperial conference's preference decision, said Imperial preference had been part of Australia's policy for years. Presumably the Conference's decision meant, that Britain intended to give preference to Australia. '