THE NAURU AGREEMENT

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160708, 22 July 1920, Page 2

THE NAURU AGREEMENT

DEBATE IN THE COMMONS. THIRD READING CARRIED. Reuter. LONDON, July 2d. In the House of Commons, op the report stage of the Nauru Agreement Bill, the Government made no attempt to reverse the Standing Committee’s decision to make the ratification of tho agreement subject to Article 22 of the covenant of the League of Nations. On the third reading Commander Dawes (Coalition Liberal, Southwark) declared that the Government ought te have bought the company’s shares in the open, market. He failed to see hoW we were going to get 6 per cent, on our money. It ought not to go forth that we were profiting largely undei Ihe guise of a mandate. Lieutenant Mosly (Coalition Unionist, Harrow) thought the Government had made a bad bargain, although someone had made a lot of money out of the transaction. Colonel Wilson, for the Government, quoted figures showing that Australia had benefited to the extent of fourteen shillings a ton on phosphates and New Zealand even more. The Bill was read a third time by 116 to 3L