EMPIRE TRADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 112, 13 May 1929, Page 7

EMPIRE TRADE

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE THE GOVERNMENT’S POLICY EXCELLENT RESULTS SHOWN ( Australian Press Assn. ] Received Mav 12. 8 p.m. LONDON, May 11. In an election address issued in pamphlet form, the Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin, stresses among the means "of assisting the Dominions in cooperation and expansion, the value of Imperial preference, which, since 1924, had bc-ei- stabilised and extended with excellent results. The Empire to-day was far the best maiket, and wa* buying nearly as much manuf.v iures as all the foreign countries ♦ gether. ‘ ‘ Our Literal and Socialist opponents, by their actions in 1924 and their declarations .since, have shown determined hostility to the whole idea of preference,*’ he states in the pamphlet. “We, on the contrary, demonstrated the great possibilities, and subject to my pledge not to impose protective taxation on food, we shall continue to promote it as n essential part of our policy of Imperial development.”

LABOUR ATTACKED PROPAGANDA OF VIOLENCE [ Australian Press Assn. I Received May 12. 8.30 p.m. LONDON, May 10. The Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin, inaugurated the unionist campaign by addressing an audience of 1d,090 at the Albert Hall. He said the -at light was beginning on the anniversary of the general strike, which Mr Ramsay MacDonald now disowned, but forgot that it was the direct and logical outcome of Labour’s propaganda of violence. Those who preached these doctrines sowed the wind, but the nation reaped the whirlwind. They had challenged law and order. The Government of the country thus headed straight for anarchy and dispotism, but an overwhelming mass of British people stood behind the present Government, whose policy for the past two years had been so successful that even Socialist 1 -'aders now preached a doctrine of -loderation. But behind them still stood the x eople who believed in revolutionary methods. He did not fear the Liberals, because the brains, money and dynamic force of the leader were of no avail unless the soul life could be breathed into Liberalism’s dry bones. Mr Bald ./in enumerated the steps t’..e Government had taken in diseeting social reforms, and increasing employment. They were prepared to put their hands to the plough again with the same energy. Illustrating the nation’s recovery since 1924, the Premier said that wholesale prices had fallen over 15 points, ami the cost of living 18 points. The real value of wages, therefore, had risen. Savings of small investors had increased £I7U,OOO,OUU, shipbuilding was improving, the iron and ,teel trade was better even than oal, which was showing a considerable improvement, more men were working and more coal was being produced. Mr Ramsay MacDonald, speaking at Seaham, said that if the present Government were returned to Downing Street, it would get straightway into its political pyjam is and stay •.here for Uic next five years.