QUEENSLAND PREMIER INTERVIEWED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2195, 28 October 1920, Page 1

QUEENSLAND PREMIER INTERVIEWED.

POST-WA R CONDITIONS ABROAD. ■

Mr Theodore, Premier of Queensland, when interviewed on his return of Australia, was absolutely silent on the subject of finance. His attitude seemed to suggest that he was awaiting some cable news from England.

Mr Theodore went on to say that if the Labour Party was endorsed at the forthcoming elections, he thought there would be better prospects of getting a loan, because the financial institutions in London responsible for the difficulty took their

action because they were assured by his political opponents that a boycott would lead to the defeat of the Labour Government and a National Government would come into power, whose policy would be to withdraw some of the legislation objected to. A visit to America and Europe impressed and astounded him with the fact that profiteering was keener now than probably it ever was, and that Governments Avould have to exert a great deal more vigorous restrictions of profits, and would bo compelled to engage in enterprises for the control of public utilities and for the proper. distribution of foods tuft's and the elimination of undue profits in order to protect (he people. Food stuffs were cheaper in Australia than in any part of the world. Our industrial problems, great as they were in Australia, were by no means as difficult as some of the problems in America and England. The high cost of living in England and the general industrial chaos that existed there presented a very big problem for the leaders of English thought in polities. He was convinced that in England, and also in America, an industrial sma.-h was pending, unless (he leaders of the Government, of industries, and of Labour were aide to find some solution tor the increasing cost of production. He thought that in most countries of Europe the worker was more enlightened in regard to his potential power as a factor in the community, hut he was Jaeod with greater dillicullies than ever before as a worker.

Widespread interest was la ken in London in the possibility of establishing on a large scale the cotton industry of Queensland. There was every pror-pm of negotiations being satisfactorily settled between the Queensland Government and the Empire (Alton-growers’ Association a semi-government body which guaranteed a minimum price for cotton for the development of tinindustry in Queensland.