BRITISH POLITICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1924, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

[RkUTHBS TKCEOKAMa.J E. M. B. FISHER. LOXDOX, October 22. E. M. 11. Fisher, (a Xew Zealander Conservative, is lighting -Mr Trcv<?lya lor Newcastle seat. He is handiciippe by most disorderly meetings. \- THE “TIMES” INDICTMENT

[“Tun Times” Service.]

(Received this day at 9.15 a.m.}, LOXDOX, Oct. 22. The “Times” points out that the most remarkable feature of the Labour Party’s manifesto is the almost complete silence on Empire subjects. Why do they fix their gaze so ardently on 'Bolshevist trade while coyly averting it from the more promising Dominion markets. Why is this enormous Bolshevist preference camouflaged under a guarantee loan when they reject trilling preference to a few insignificant Dominion commodities. During the last three years fifteen million of their countrymen in Australasia and Canada imported from Britain more than £170,090,000. Preference is not the only subject 'wherin the Government seemed to condemn Empire opinion, though a bio to pledge thirty million to obtain a visionary trade from Russia. Economy forbids them finding a million for the Singapore base, which Australasia deems essential to her security. They plume themselves on Lord Parmoor's Geneva protocol without troubling about the Dominions’ views, especially upon the vital matters of Oriental immigration.

RUSSIAN TREATY DENOUNCED. (Received this dn.v at 0.25 a.m.) LOXDOX, Oct. 22. Lord Birkenhead, speaking in London, said lie lielievcd the heart of the nation was sound and true and it would repudiate the mad economic philisophy derived from the hysterical writings of Kail Marx. lie found everywhere a stern determination not to permit the crime of lending money to Russia, which was the most important issue of the election. Lord Curzon, also speaking in London, said the Russian loan had disturbed the commercial community more than any proposal of the Lahour Government, whose assumption of office was a foolish and fatuous experiment, due to the stupiditiy of the Liberal Party. Lord Curzon ridiculed Mr MacDonald’s assertion that his Government, in eight months, had contributed more to peace than all the other parties in the last eight years. Lord Curzon had himself received personal private assurances Irom each of the Dominion Ministers that they were entirely satisfied with Britain's foreign policy in the past and desired its continuance on the same lines and in the same hands. Labour had no real conception of the Imperial idea, hut merely paid lip service to the Dominions. Air J. 11. Thomas’s numerous speeches boiled over with Irothv patriotism, hut they pursued a policy apart from, and contemptuous of, the Dominions. They dropped a resolution of the Umpire Conference for Imperial preference, and the Singapore scheme, which the Dominions considered vital to their security. Finally, they signed the Soviet Treaty wherewith not a single Dominion Rrime Minister had the smallest sympathy. ft was the most humiliating and disgraceful act in British annals. They were in the hands of their gunmen. The country, concluded Lord Curzon, would insist on having a Government that would npt allow the claims of the citizens of the Umpire to he bartered in return for the emblems of the Bolshevists.