THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1924. PREFERENCE TO DOMINIONS.

Wairarapa Age, 19 December 1924, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1924. PREFERENCE TO DOMINIONS.

It i# evident from random statements that are being made fey various members of the new British Government that the policy of giving preference to the Dominions is going to be carried out by other means' than by the customs tariff. When Mr Baldwin went to the country on this clear issue and customs duties on oversea foodstuffs were indicated as the only means of giving effect to the policy, he was summarily defeated. The British workingman, true to his traditions or cheap food and no taxes on the necessaries of life, voted solidly against the Unionist candidates and set back the fortunes of the party by many seats. Having come to power again within about a year by a revulsion of feeling against the foreign policy of the Labour Government and unhealthy communist elements in British politics, Mr Baldwin is too a man to attempt to carry through the policy which the electors so plainly disapproved of. Instead, he is extending help to the Dominions in various other ways. A bill has been introduced to give effect to the resolutions of the Economic Conference, and to-day we are told that a sum of £1,000,000 is to be devoted each year to assisting the distribution of oversea products in British markets. We do not know yet what form the assistance will take, but it will clearly not be through the customs. There are, however, dozens of ways in which the same object could be affected without putting a duty on foodstuffs, and probably the British Government will sooner cr Inter give attention io the control o' British shipping in the interests of the British Dominions. It is inconceivable that Brtish shipowners will ever again be permitted to grant better terms to foreign manufacturers invading the British Dominions with their wares than they give to British manufacturers.