EMPIRE CONFERENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 50, 29 January 1932, Page 7

EMPIRE CONFERENCE

OTTAWA DISCUSSIONS. DOMINIONS’ INTERESTS. PREPARATIONS BEING MADE. (United Press Association—By Electric « Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received January 29, 8.5 a.m. RUGBY, Jan. 28.' Preparations for the Imperial Economic Conference, provisionally fixed ; for the second week'in July at Ottawa, J are making good progress. i The' Secretary for the Dominions, Mr J.- H. Thomas, in an interview, said that a representative of the British Government would attend unhampered by adherence to any particular creed. r For the conference to achieve lasting and benefit.al results, the concessions must not be all on one side, and, for this reason, the British Government) had a special interest in the viewpoints of the Dominions, whoso individual interests differed widely. A detailed examination in advance was essential, and here and in the Dominions the representatives of the Governments concerned were in contact. A Cabinet Committee under the former Prime Minister. Mr Stanley Bruce, was directing tlie preparatory work in Australia, and the South African Government had appointed representatives for a similar purpose. The British Government was discussing the trade questions that,, would arise with the interested bodies in England, and to-morrow he (Mr Thomas) would meet, the British Committee on Empire Trade, comprising representatives of ; the Federation of British Industries, the Association of British Chambers of Commeroe, the Chamber of Shipping, and representatives of .several manufacturing and trade associations. Mr Thomas said that to advance the date of the conference would be impossible in view of the domestic affairs here and in the Dominions, and of the preliminary work to be done. Meanwhile no negotiations whatever on trade relations with foreign countries would be undertaken that would prejudice free, unfettered discussion at Ottawa. . W

FUTURE OF EMPIRE AT STAKE.

NEWSPAPER COMMENT. Received January 29, 8.30 a.m. LONDON, Jan. 28. The Daily Telegraph says: “The British delegation to go to Ottawa is prepared not merely to strike a bargain, but to lay the foundation of what Mr R. B. Bennett, the Canadian Prime Minister, called the- ‘new Economic Empire.’ Feeling is strong throughout the country that the future of the British Empire is at stake, and that the failure of the conference would be an irretrievable disaster.

“Mr J. H. Thomas has reaffirmed the assurances of Mr Neville Chamberlain and Mr W. ’ Runciman that no preferences would be granted to a. foreign country until after the Imperial Conference.’’

WAIT TILL JULY.

BRITISH TARIFF PLANS. The first list of preferences in favour of imports from the Dominions, will, it is understood, apply only to nonessential commodities and the benefit will be the difference between a 25 per oent. tariff against foreign countries, and 10 per cent, against the Dominions, said a recent London message. The general scheme, to include necessary foodstuffs and raw materials, will not be introduced until Great Britain and the Dominions have threshed out the whole subject of Empire trade at the conference to be held at Ottawa in July. A , The position, it appears, is that for the present any attempt to apply a general scheme of preferences would entail that imposition of a general tariff considerably exceeding 10 per cent.; but 10 per ceht.—is the maximum to which the free traders of the Cabinet, the strongest of whom is the President of the Board of Trade, Mr Walter Runciman, will go. Adequate preferences, if linked to a general 10 per cent, tariff, would entail a system of rebates to the Dominions. The British Government’s objection to rebates is that they would be of doubtful advantage to the Dominions and, further, they would embarrass the Government at Ottawa—the Government, that is, would be handicapped if it faced the Dominions there with a prearranged preference scheme..