PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2085, 21 May 1907, Page 2

PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

Press Association—Copyright. SPEECH BY MR CHURCHILL. LONDON, May 19. Mr. Winston Churchill, addressing 3000 members of the Scottish, Liberal, Association, said the demand for preference was made at the Colo-, nial Conference and repeated daily in strident clamor by the Tories and! pothouse press supporting them. They said the Government banged the door. Yes, they had banged and bolted the door upon Imperial taxation of food, and the largest Liberal and Labor majority they had ever seen had set their backs firmly against it. The Liberals would stand like' a rock between the working masses and those squeezing some shameful little profit out of the scanty pittance of the weak and poor. He added: “Of some of the speeches of our colonial guests I say nothing except that .they were the. guests of the Government, and tkb laws of hospiality impose obligations not only on hosts but on guests'. The ;■ mischief-making - and eavesdropping press had done their best to create, ill-feeling between the Premiers and the Government, but the forces for unity will emerge strong enough to make their exertions in vain.”

ACTION IN THE UNITED STATES; NEW YORK, May 18.' Britain’s attitude on the question ' of preference at the Imperial Conference has induced the Democrats of Massachussetts to make reciprocity with Canada the chief plank in their platform in the next campaign for the State Governorship.

SOUTH AFRICAN OPINION. Received May 20, 9.28 p.m. , LONDON, May 20. Dr. Jameson in an interview at Southampton on the eve of his departure declared that ho was disappointed at the result of the Imperial Conference ; but certain principles had been affirmed and definite steps taken which would bear fruit in the future. Dr. Smartt, interviewed, complained of the timidity of the Imperial Government in refusing to examine dispassionately and consider the vital question of fiscal reform. Even wtili a mandate against preference the Government might have ; rediiced the duties on tobacco and sugar in the interests of the Empire.

VIEWS OF SIR JOSEPH WARD. Received May 20, 9.36 p.m. LONDON, May 20. Sir Joseph Ward in an interview with Reuter’s agent at Brindisi said it would be idle to say that befqre coming to the Conference lie believed n resolution favorable to preference would bo carried, because ho understood that the Imperial Governmontfs declared policy was in favor of Freetrade, though personally be believed the question of Protection and Freetiade ought not to have been allowed to enter into the question of preferential trade, yet if preference was legarded as a Protectionist policy it would have been paradoxical to have found a party opposed to Protection and preference supporting it at the conference. Ho emphasised that the Conference proved nowise abortive, On the contrary much valuable information was recorded at what, after all, must be remembered as the first practical business Conference : held, and it should yield practical results in the future. Y.