OTTAWA AGREEMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1932, Page 7

OTTAWA AGREEMENTS

GIVING ROYAL ASSENT. THE TRADITIONAL CEREMONY. London, Nov. 15. “What’s this they’re passing?” was the idle query of bystanders when Black Rod led a party of leading Ministers and members of the House of Commons from the Commons to the Lords this afternoon, in the traditional ceremony of obtaining the Royal assent to the Ottawa Agreements. With so little pomp was one of the most historic measures of Imperial legislation passed into law. Probably nobody in England, excepting those immediately associated with the preparation of the final drafts, remembered that it will be 30 years on December 16 next since the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain “startled friends and foes alike by his scheme for preferential treatment of colonial imports and protection for native manufactures.” Comparatively few members of the House of Commons were in the House when the summons came from the Lords. They had to jog their memory to realise the significance of the occas ; --'. The final act was the Treasury issuing an order under the bill, directing the operation of the provisons forthwith, With specified exceptions,