PREFERENCE DEBATE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17564, 15 June 1925, Page 11

PREFERENCE DEBATE.

* “ BUY BRITISH GOODS.” j * 5 By Telegraph.—Press Asm.—Copyright. Australian aud N.Z Cable Association LONDON, June 13. In the preference division in the * House of Commons, twenty Labour members voted for the motion comi pared with five, last year. The National Union of Manufacturers fi> taking up the preference eatn- ■ paign with the slogan, " Buy British 1 Goods,” under which heading dominion - foodstuffs is given prominence. The Labour members of Parliament i supporting preference included the front benchers, Messrs J. H. Thomas, V. Hartshorn and T. Kenned}'. The other , front-benchers, including Mr MacDonald. were against it. 3 Most of the Clydesiders were absent, but they have intimated that they 3 would have voted with the Govern--3 ment. s Mr G. Lansbury (Lab., Bow) telegraphed asking to be paired in favour f of preference. r At a recent meeting of the Labour 1 Party, thirty-two members were antipreference a id twenty-seven in favou* of it. The last-named group has increased by five in three days. The ‘‘Daily Herald” lobbyist says: “There are indications that there is a steadily-growing minority in the Labour .Party in favour of a modified form of preference, so long as it does not involve increased cost of foodstuffs and that the goods to which preference l is given are produced under fair labour t conditions.” NO TAX ON FOOD. 1 LONDON, June li’. Mr Winston Churchill, in the course , of the preference debate, said there was j no danger that preference would lead * to a tax on basic food necessaries, which j might lead to a collision between kith and kin in Britain and the dominions. For ten years the Conservatives had ’ repudiated an;,* intention of taxing * basic foods. Not one Liberal had chal- * lenged the preference resolution passed at the 1917 Imperial Conference. The * more they could keep this controversy * and its party-splitting issues out of 1 the realm of Imperial development the more they would build up a great con--7 sensus of unity on a basis of freedom * and goodwill.