A SOLID EMPIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1032, 24 July 1930, Page 11

A SOLID EMPIRE

ECONOMIC GROUP FORMED TO ASSIST TRADE BASIS OF RECIPROCITY Reed. 10.5 a.m. LONDON, Wed. Thirty-six members of the House of Lords, including Lord Allenby, Lord Reatty, Lord Birkenhead, Lord Eli bank arul Earl Jellicoe, have formed an Empire Economic Group, They elected Lord Melchett chairman and passed a resolution pledging the group to use its utmost endeavours to promote Empire economic unity. The “Morning Post” directs attention to the significance of recent news items. It recalls that the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. J. H. Scullin, said preferences would be increased if Britain would enter into further reciprocal arrangements. The paper also refers to New -Zealand’s newly-increased preferences, to Canada’s similar Budget provisions and to the Indian Government’s insistence upon British preference while agreeing to a rise in the fiscal duties on cotton. The “Post” remarks that these fiscal actions and undertakings show that at least part of the Empire would be prepared to progress farther along the road to preference if there were a chance of obtaining something in return. “Is there anything doing?” asks the paper. “We could, if we liked, make tempting offers. It is easy to see what even a small advantage in the British market would mean to the Canadian wheat farmer in the matter of security. So in Australia, where wheat is one of the staple crops, and South Africa, where especially maize growing might be developed. “New Zealand, as a g-~wer of mixed produce, would also like a stake in the British market. The old countries have shut us out so our future lies with the new countries.