MINISTERS’ TOURS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19364, 30 June 1937, Page 15

MINISTERS’ TOURS

AUSTRALIAN CONTROVERSY LABOUR HOLDS RECORD SYDNEY, Juno 31. During tho five and a half years tho Lyons Government had been in power, the annual cost of oversea delegations had been £9OOO. yet during the first year of the last Labour Government, five Ministers went abroad at a cost of £15,676. This statement was part of tho reply made by Mr. Lawson, M.P., to the criticism of Alderman W. P. Ashley, who had condemned the practice of the Lvons Government in sending Ministers abroad. “The Labour Government figures, Mr. Lawson added, “are a record in respect of tbe number of Ministers going abroad in ono year and tbe other trips were only prevented by tho Government’s impending defeat. Alderman Ashley’s figures reveal that my trip cost the Government nothing, and reveal, too, how grossly false and unfair was his original statement against me.” Mr. Lawson added that the Ottawa agreement and trade treaties with Czechoslovakia, Belgium, and France alone were worth millions of pounds a venr to Australia. Alderman Ashley had failed to take into account the great benefits that had accrued to Australia as the result of such journeys overseas. The treaties were all a direct result of recent oversea, delegations and wcio "dirt cheap” at the price.