LEADER CHALLENGED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 9

LEADER CHALLENGED

BALDWIN FACES PARTY MEETING TOMORROW ATTITUDE ON FREE TRADE British Official Wireless Reed. Noon. RUGBY", Sunday. A Conservative Party meeting has been convened for next Tuesday as the sequel to attacks made on Mr. Stanley Baldwin’s leadership by protagonists of the Empire Free Trace movement. There has not been a Conservative Party meeting of this kind for seven years, when after his defeat at the 1923 General Election, Mr. Baldwin received an enthusiastic vote of confidence. The main question at issue is i Mr. Baldwin’s atti- . tude toward the programme ol the Empire free traders, particularly on the question of food taxes. Mr. Baldwin, as a compromise, some months ago accepted the proposal of Lord Beaverbrook, who leads the Empire free traders, to refer to the people the question of any agreement involving food taxes that may be reached at a specially-summoned Imperial Conference. He lias repeatedly stated that food taxes will not figure in his pr> gramme at the next General Election. His utterances have been regarded as lukewarm by the Empire free traders, and Lord Beaverbrook, in a letter to the “Daily Mail” on Tuesday, said the Empire crusaders could expect little assistance from the Conservative front Bench. 1-Ie appealed to all Conservatives for subscriptions to enable them to place a candidate in those constituencies in which Empire free trade was not actively supported.