INDIAN COTTON DUTY

Southland Times, Issue 17968, 8 March 1917, Page 5

INDIAN COTTON DUTY

VIGOROUSLY DENOUNCED. (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright) .(Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, March 6. The Morning Post states that the announcement, dropped on Lancashire like a bombshell, that the dominions and India had been invited to send representatives to London to promote inter-im-perial trade. Until the conference meets it is improper for the Government of India to impose a duty on cotton goods and the action is directly opposed to the whole spirit of the conference which undoubtedly is reciprocity. It was never intended that tariff reform should set the dominions against the Mother Country. The Daily News vehemently denounces the duty as revolutionary. There has been nothing quite like it in our history. The measure was carried out without consulting . Parliament and Implies a change in the whole Imperial fiscal relations wherein the dominions are intimately concerned. The Imperial Conference is blithely overridden and forestalled. TRADE UNIONS PROTEST. SUPPORTED BY THE EMPLOYERS. LONDON. March 7. Received March 8, 12.15 a.m. . The Lancashire Cotton Trade Unions, representing 400,000 workers, decided to protest against the Indian cotton duty, and will send a deputation to Mr Chamberlain. The leading employers’ associations' decided similarly. The speeches complained about raising the fiscal question.

The Lancashire members of the House of Commons have called a meeting.