EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT

Southland Times, Issue 18932, 4 May 1923, Page 5

EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT

NEED FOR CO-OPERATION PREFERENCE TO DOMINIONS (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright). (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, May 2. The Duke of Marlborough, in the House of Lords, raised the question of Imperial preference. The principle had been accepted by all parties that no government dare remove the existing tariff. He asked if the Government contemplated the possibility of extending existing preferences. He also asked the Government whether it was satisfied with the Empire Settlement Act? He expressed the hope that the agricultural labourer would stay at home. There were thousands of artisans well capable of taking their places overseas. Lord Airlie said the dominions did not regard emigration as a solution of unemployment. The Government's Empire development policy could not be fully carried out without dominion co-operation. It would be a disaster to move more quickly than the dominions were willing and ready to move. The present task of the country was to train part of the town population to adopt them to land work overseas. Viscount Long could not understand any serious hostility being offered to a policy of Imperial preference. If the Empire chose, it could supply the whole of its own requirements. No one desired to see British wageearners driven from the country, but there was a surplus which the dominions could absorb. The Duke of Devonshire said that when occasion arose the Government hoped to extend the principle of Imperial preference. All hoped in conjunction with the dominions at the conference in October to work out methods for still further helping Imperial trade. The Government would not hesitate to ask for further powers for the extension of State-aided migration. This was not a measure of despair or a temporary’ expedient for grappling with employment, but was a means of developing the Empire. The Duke of Devonshire said that a valuable and useful migration scheme had already been w<ked out which it was hoped would be the precursor of other wider ones. Lord Beauchamp said there would be united Liberal opposition to Imperial preference if it entailed increased food costs in Britain. Lord Birkenhead said that there was no prospect of a trade revival in Europe for the next five years. Many men accepted doles in Britain with bitterness. With organisation and adjustment it should be possible to overcome the Englishmen’s and women’s impulse against leaving the country. It should not be beyond the Government’s power to draft Britain’s unemployment to the dominions. Man did not live by sentiment and the Empire could not be kept together by mutual eulogy and adoration. The dominions had sacrificed much in giving them preference. They much be prepared to do something for them. At this stage the House rose.