TARIFF REFORM

Southland Times, Issue 19102, 21 November 1923, Page 5

TARIFF REFORM

REMEDY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BETTER THAN PALLIATIVES “KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURNING” (By Telegraph —Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, November 20. (Received November 20, 11 p.m.) Colonel L. C. S. Amery, opening his campaign at Birmingham, said that he never hoped to play on a better wicket than that he had that day. Whatever bowling came, the Government would welcome it. The present election was the result of Mr Bonar Law’s pledge but that statesman always believed that a fundamental change in the fiscal policy was necessary. Believing, as they did, that they had a remedy for unemployment, the Government asked the people to allow them to apply the remedy. They did not wish to hang on to office and potter about with palliatives. THE CONSERVATIVE SLOGAN. “KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURNING.” LONDON, November 19. Mr Stanley Baldwin, opening the Unionist campaign at Queen’s Hall, said Mr Lloyd George’s speech on Saturday was a reversion to the type with which he lost last election, because people had ceased to trust him. The only issue at present was unemployment for which his prescription was to “keep the home fires burning.” The price of some article might rise before a readjustment between Home and imported production came but that was a mere bagatelle compared with what we had to face to-day. The Conservatives were a united party, fighting to win with a large majority to put an end to the possibility of any form of coalition. NIGHTMARE OF UNEMPLOYMENT. MR BALDWIN’S PANACEA. MUST PROTECT HOME MARKETS. LONDON, November 19. (Received November 20, 12.15 a.m.). Mr Stanley Baldwin, at Queen’s Hall, said it was for Mr Lloyd George, who introduced the worst and most ludicrous fiscal Budget of 1909 —a fiasco which would have finished anyone with less resilency than Mr Lloyd George—to find fault with the Duke of Devonshire’s calculations. The latter, at any rate, possessed the country’s confidence of the righteous and straightforward nature of his character. W r hether his opponents disliked it or not, the supreme issue at the election was unemployment. Britain was the world’s shock absorber. "Why,” asked the Premier, “should the whole weight and burden of the world’s contracted trade fall on our shoulders, instead of being shared by other countries. We cannot wait for a settlement of Europe. We must look after ourselves. We have striven and are striving, and will strive for a settlement of the peace. Meantime I am not content to watch our industries being crippled under our very eyes by countries which fenced themselves in prohibitive tariffs and are thereby able to undercut us by dint of foreign exchanges. The time has come when we cannot continue the unarmed fight and must realise that, important as is our foreign trade, we must look to our home trade which we have long neglected. I do not claim my proposals as a universal panacea, that unemployment will completely disappear, that a pint-pot will hold a quart or that we will get ninepence for fourpence, but I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that mine are the only proposals directed to the one end, i.e., fighting the nightmare of unemployment. We have the greatest cause for which we could fight. We are fighting for the underdog.”