GERMAN WHEAT DUMPING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18411, 1 November 1929, Page 9

GERMAN WHEAT DUMPING.

British Farmers Suffer, j ATTITUDE OF LABOUR GOVERNMENT. ITtritleb Official Wireleea , (Received October 311, 7.30 p.m.) RUGBY, October 30. Sir Edward Hiffe, Conservative M.P., called attention in the House of Commons to the dumping of German wheat and other cereals in Britain, and moved that immediate steps be taken by the Government to counteract the injurious effect on British agriculture. He said the German subsidy on wheat was approximately 13/6 per quarter. In that way the Eritish farmer could be under sold. The same system applied to barley and oats, though the amount varied. Apart from the subsidy, it v/as very difficult for British farmers to sell in competition with German farmers, because of the longer hours of agricultural workers in Germany, and the fact that in many districts, during sowing and harvesting seasons, women and children laboured in gangs, and were paid at the rate of approximately 3d per hour. The possible solutions were to put a duty on all bounty-fed cereals coming from abroad, except those from the British Empire, or to subsidise the growing of those particular cereals in the United Kingdom. Mr Noel Buxton (Minister of Agriculture) in his reply, pointed out that the Conservative Government, the majority of whose Party, as he understood, favoured protection, frequently declined protection as a remedy for the British farmers’ difficulties. The present Government could no more than the late Government impose countervailing duty to counteract the effect of German dumping, which he agreed was regrettable and most damaging. As for a subsidy to the British corn grower, the subsidy system was repealed in 1921, and the late Government had explicitly repudiated the policy of a subsidy. He hoped, however, that conditions would offer an opportunity for action on non-party lines, to which all could agree, without abatirg one jot of their principles. Replying to the argument that the Anglo-German Commercial Treaty did not preclude a countervailing duty, Mr Buxton said it did so. “It is not the treaty we want to denounce, or which any Government wbuld denounce. It is a treaty which is considered of extreme value. The Government, like its predecessors, i 6 entirely opposed to duties on food.” Sir Newton, seconding the motion, said that within the past ten years, Britain’s wheat acreage had declined 280,000,000, of which 45 per cent, was within the Empire, which was producing far more than the Empire’s needs. Britain’s wheat growers led the world, both in yield and quality. The motion was negatived by 266 votes to 157.