SAFEGUARDING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18413, 20 June 1925, Page 13

SAFEGUARDING.

A FREETRADER'S VISION.

[lt was anivcuseM in cur cal>!#s wi Thursday that the ateel and I*c« irdMU*** of Britain havo appealed for sjwcial treatment under the Safeguarding ci Isdsstti** Act. If that movement ccßtinu** w» aaaiX see something liket the vi-ioa of the jaarra'ist who supplied "Truth.~ London. »ith thi» "authentic report of the prcctedias* which ho capecta to »tuad later ©a-'*j

Owing to the accumulation cf business during the Easter recess, yesterday's sitting was an unusually bos? one. After the Committee had Ukea their scats the application of thtj Association of British Salmon Fishery Owners was at once proceeded with. Sir Donald McSporran, ia stating: tfcff case for the Association, explained that they spoke not only for the owners of fishing rights, hut for rod manufacturers, lino makers, fly designers, hook twisters, and those sections of the steel industry devoted to the manufacture of hooks. These industries rvpresented a total of many thousands of British workers, who were unfairly* treated by the increased importation of tinned salmon from Norway, the Rhine. Canada, and Alaska. It was notorious that the cold and dry climate of these countries created conditions favourable to the fish and attractive to the angler with which Scotland and England, hampered by a wet and a misty climate, wero unable to compete. Sir Donald's address was followed by evidence regarding the comparative price of turned and fresh salmon, and the increase of unemployment in the industries abovementioned. Objections wero then heard from representatives of the tin-plate industry as exporters of tins to Canada. steamship lines carrying tinned Sainton in largo quantities, and retail firms who anticipated heavy loss from any restriction on tho importation of tinned salmon.

On tho conclusion of the evidence the chairman pointed out that an application for the protection of o th* deep sea fishing industry by putties a spocial duty on every fish proved caught outside the three-mile limit, and therefore the potential acquisition of a foreign fisherman, had failed owing to tho difficulty of adjudicating on each. particular fish. He did not, however, anticipate that the Board of Trade would find a similar difficulty in dealing with the fresh fish industry. A great deal of interest was evinced in the next case, which was the application of the Ail-British Sausage Makors' Federation for a 10 per cent. a«I valorem duty on German sausages. Sir Jasper Palk, who stated the ease foe the Federation, said that it was essentially based upon the unequal conditions of labour in the two countries which h-3 understood to be accepted as giving the home producer an indefeasible claim to safeguards under the Act. He did not, however, rely en the relative wages of sausage-makers and agricultural labourers in the tw» countries, although, incredible as it might seem, agricultural wages were actually lower in Germany than here. He took his stand upon the British Pig. He would satisfy the Committee that the British Pig was better fed and I better housed than any German swine. ■Ln effect., the German pig- stood for a sweated industry. Over and abox« that, the cost of housing pigs owing to the -present shortage of styes, and of feeding them on the higher seal* of diet on which the B.&T.C.A. insisted, imposed a handicap on the British pork-grower, and through him upon the sausage-maker, which ho believed far exceeded the modest 10 per cent. now asked for. He appealed to every lover of animals, and all advocates ex a decent standard of life for the w«rk> er, to support the trade in this uat» ter.

After the luncheon interval a genile» mnn, who said that he and his friends present represented'the North Leade* Consumers' Association, asked persuasion to raise a point of order. They contended that tariffs on fish and sausages were contrary to the pledges of the Prime Minister and his party not to tax food. The Chairman said that the Committee had nothing to do with questions of that kind, aid the N.L.C. Association had better go to the House of Commons. He might pent out, however, that it was one- thins to put a tax on food and another to pat a tariff on mere articles of dietary. Tho two things were as different as Safeguarding and Protection. ' While the Government bad-promised sot to tax food, they reserved by inplieatkut the right to pat a tariff oa article* of dietary. Tho Committee next began the consideration of a number of application relative to the mowr-car industry. British motor-ear 'manufacturers male two requests: First, for an increase in and a re-imposition of tho UcKeana duties; secondly, for the remission of duties previously imposed en foreign upholstery. They produce evidence to show that the greater portion of tassels, binding-laces, and trinuniags used in British cars are - aeeesaarirjr imported from the Continent, and that duties upon them materially increased the cost of production of a British car. Tho British coachhtrilders are asking for the duties on foreign frames and chassis to be remitted and transferred to foreign-built bodies and coach work. They point to the amount of boaiaeae done in. building bodies, screens, and wings round foreign chassis and tho consequent increase of unemployment that much follow any restriction «a their importation. The consideration of these and other points is likely to occupy the committee for some days, if not weeks.

On the adjournment the Chaln&xa said that it would not be easy to reconcile the conflicting applications that had been presented. He had had an opportunity of discussing this matter with the President of the Board of Trade, who had decided that the rale to be followed should be to grant applications for safeguards that asked for duties to be put on, and to reject those) that asked for duties to be taken off. This might not please everybody, hat it was clear that no mere safeguards could do that. All that they could attempt was to please the greatest possible number.