The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1934. CALL FOR CONFERENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19806, 23 May 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1934. CALL FOR CONFERENCE.

Very little credence should be given the positive statement -issued by The Daily Telegraph, which suggests that no Imperial Conference is likely to be held in London until after the general election in 1936. “Informal talks,” the cable messages state, “will be arranged with Dominion statesmen who visit London in 1935 for the functions associated with the silver jubilee of the reign of King George.” Manifestly the crisis that is rapidly developing at Home in relation to the importation of Dominion' produce for the English markets, will force the hands of the British and Dominions Governments to come to an understanding on quotas. Not only has the question of restrictions become an economic and rural problem of the first order, but support or opposition to the quota proposals lias developed into a burning political topic. Early in April , the Dominions were blamed by representative speakers in the House of Commons for having caused the failure of the British milk marketing scheme, by sending to the Homeland “a flood of low-priced products such as butter and cream.” As a matter of fact, the First Commissioner of Works (Mr Ormsby-Gore) who is a member of the Imperial Cabinet, declared without any qualification that it was because of Dominion competition that the Milk Marketing Board “was facing something like a crisis.” One of tlie leading members of the Conservative Party, who opened the debate

Protested that the Government’s hands were “tied by Ottawa,” Success of the schemes depended, he argued, on restriction of imports. Without such restriction the Marketing Boards would be entirely unacceptable to the producers and absolutely ineffective. The Government, he said, had taken some slight steps to stop imports, but without success—owing to Ottawa. The milk prices fixed by the arbitrators had caused consternation among a large number of milk producers. There had been unfair discrimination in favour of the distributors, who were making a very good thing out of it. Farmers could not submit to the net price being fixed by these arbitrators. Farmers had lost confidence in them. A resolution was moved to the effect that all difficulties and inequalities that had been revealed in the working of the schemes should be speedily removed.

Although responsible Ministers have repeatedly demanded that the marketing schemes in the Homeland are still in an experimental stage, Mr Ormsby-Gore, who at the close of one important debate, was selected by the Government to reply to the protests of Parliamentary representatives of rural constituencies. He insisted “that control of imports is essential unless the British farmer is to be ruined.” Nevertheless, the Minister was forced to confess “that there is not a single agricultural product that Britain could not buy more cheaply overseas on a free import basis.” Plainly no basis of decision on important policy could be found on that assumption, because the market price of imported foodstuffs is not only too low to permit of Home competition, but the returns are ruinous to overseas producers. Significantly enough other interests are making themselves heard; indeed, the cable messages this morning indicate that powerful representations have been made in the City of London to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and to the President of the Board of Trade, that the quota policy would engender interest payments on British interests in Overseas Dominions and in the Argentine. It is therefore not surprising that wellinformed newspapers in London are saying that the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand will shortly press the British Government to convene an Imperial Economic Conference before the Ottawa Agreements relating to dairy produce expire in June of next year. In Dominion circles in London, it is freely stated that Mr Walter Elliot, the Minister of Agriculture, is determined next year to secure wholesale restrictions in the imports of Dominion dairy produce. But the feeling persists that Mr Neville Chamberlain and other Conservative members of the Cabinet, while sympathising with the British farmers’ wish to reduce Dominion competition, are not anxious to precipitate unfriendly Imperial relations, now threatened as a direct result of Ottawa. It would be advantageous therefore from the Dominions’ point of view if a special conference could be held to consider in advance the situation that will be created by the expiry of the agreements in June of next year.