LABOUR’S POLICY CHALLENGED.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18622, 18 July 1930, Page 9

LABOUR’S POLICY CHALLENGED.

Defeat Of Censure Motion. NEED FOE SAFEGUARDING. r British Official Wireless RUGBY. July 16. Mr Stanley Baldwin moved a vote of censure on the Government in the House of Commons this evening. The motion declared: “The House, believing that the return to prosperity could only be promoted by safeguarding the Home markets against unfair competition, and by expanding the export markets by reciprocal trade agreements with the Empire overseas, regretted that the Government had reversed the policy of safeguarding, instead of extending it, and had arbitrarily excluded from consideration the position of duties on foreign food stuffs, devised to obtain equivalent advantages for the British manufactures and agriculture in British markets and elsewhere.” Mr Baldwin invited Mr Snowden to state the policy the Government intended to follow at the Imperial Conference. Mr Snowden (Chancellor of the Exchequer) replying, said the Government would be no party to food taxes or taxes on raw material or protective duties. They would enter the Imperial Conference barring no questions from discussion, but it would be made abundantly clear that they would approve no final conclusion which involved this country in a food taxation policy, or a general protectionist policy. Outside that there were plenty of questions of great importance which the Imperial Conference could discuss. Regarding safeguarding, he declared the Opposition could not point in any of the safeguarded industries to any marked effect which the duties had had in improving the position for trade. Mr Snowden said there could be no question of co-operation with the Conservatives on a basis of Labour sacrificing its principles.

INDUSTRIAL decline. SHIPBUILDING ACTIVITY AFFECTED. f United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, July 16. A decline in Britain’s shipbuilding position in relation to the rest of the world is revealed in Lloyd’s Returns for the quarter ended June 30. They show that out of 3.057,000 tons which are being constructed throughout the world, 1,392,000 tons or 45.5 per cent, is being built in Great Britain and Ireland, and 1,655,000 tons, or 65.5 per cent, abroad, while the average per centages for the last 12 months before the war were 57.2 for Great Britain and Ireland, and 42.8 abroad. The tonnage which is being constructed in Great Britain and Ireland includes 831,000 tons of motor ships and also 148,000 tons of tankers.

Liberal Criticism. Mr Lloyd George said that Mr Baldwin’s censure motion was the most inexplicable he had ever heard. Mr Baldwin was condemning the Government for repudiating food taxes, which he had himself repudiated only a few weeks ago. Mr Baldwin had been on a sliding staircase. He had not moved, but had toeen moved; in fact, he had been pushed about rather badly by* his own followers. Unemployment was too grave to be used merely, for party manoeuvres. Labour’s Two Voices. Sir Oswald Moseley (Labour), said: “What we want, and what the Dominions want, is a hard and concrete policy which will meet agricultural industrial needs. Wherever you turn from the Trades Union Councils’ report to Bankers, you find the growing concensus of opinion that it is desirable to insulate this country from the shocks of world conditions.” Mr Ramsay Macdonald recalled Mr Baldwin's pledge at Drury Lane, in April, 1929, in which he pledged the Conservatives not to impose food taxes. If Mr Baldwin was not going to violate the pledge, what was the difference between them. Not a single Dominion could give Britain substantial preference on manufactured articles, in relation to the industries which they themselves were establishing behind tariff walls, in return for advantages for food imports. At the Imperial Conference, the Government would take up the position on food taxes, which every party took up, when asking for votes last general election. The censure motion was defeated by 312 votes to 241. DOMINATING QUESTION. ALL PARTIES CONCERNED. Sir Oswald Moseley’s references to the manifestos recently issued by the Bankers and the Trades Union Congress, is most significant. It is a meeting of a group of bankers and others at which Sir Eric Hambro presided, a resolution was carried in favour of urgent measures being adopted for the promotion of Imperial trade which are needed to secure and extend the market for British products. The resolution added: We believe that an immediate step for securing and extending the market for British goods lies in reciprocal trade agreements between the nations of the Empire, as a condition of which Britain must retain an open market for all Empire products while being prepared

to impose duties on all foreign imports. Trades Union Support. A Committee of the Trades Union has also come out strong for protecting English manufacturers and for a great Empire economic union. This is the last thing that Mr Snowden wants. But the rank and file is coming over. This remarkable and unanimous memorandum on the policy to be followed at the Imperial Conference is signed by the following powerful members of the Economic Committee of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress; Mr John Beard (chairman of the Trade Union Congress), Mr Ernest Beaven (Transport and General Workers’ Union), Mr Ben Tillett, M.P. (vice-chairman of the General Council), Mr George Hicks (Union of Building Trade Workers), Mr John Hill (of the Boilermakers), Mr E. L. Poulton (Boot and Shoe Operatives), Mr Arthur Pugh (Iron and Steel Trades Confederation), Mr T. Richards (Miners’ Federation of Great Britain), Mr Will Thorne, M.P. (General and Municipal Workers). This Charter shows' that trade unionists are dead against the Free Trade of Mr Snowden and Mr Macdonald. Another Amendment. A number of Labour left-wingers have tabled an amendment to the Conservative motion of censure. They include Mr E. F. Wise, Mr J. Beckett, Mr J. Macgovern, Mr Oliver Baldwin and Miss Jenny Lee. Their amendment declares that neither Free Trade nor Protection is the remedy for unemployment, and asks the Government to rescue British agriculture from ruin by the following means:— (1) To establish import boards for the principal foodstuffs and raw materials, which will enable a guarantee to be given of remunerative prices to British agriculturists for their produce, in order to avoid the disastrous effects of speculation and dumping. (2) To build up British exports by reciprocal arrangements in connection with bulk contracts. (3) To reorganise on national lines the importing and exporting machinery of staple trades, in order to deal with unfair competition.

“IT IS INSANITY.” MR SNOWDEN’S DECISION , CRITICISED United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received July 17, 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 17. “The Daily Telegraph” says that Mr Philip Snowden, in ruling out protection from the conclusions of the Imperial Conference, suppressed the main interest with which the Dominion statesmen are anticipating the Conference. What view the Dominions take of his statement shall soon be known. In the view of the great majority here, it is insanity.