EMPIRE CONFERENCE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 436, 18 May 1937, Page 5

EMPIRE CONFERENCE

AMERICAN INTEREST I FREER TRADE POLICY Possibilities Of Pact In Pacific Preso Association—Copyright. (Received 9.5 a.m.) New York, May 17. The speeches at the Imperial Conference, London, of the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr J. A. Lyons’, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr W. L. Mackenzie King, are widely featured in the newspapers. They were received with the greatest interest in Washington as evidence that Mr Mackenzie King’s recent visit there is bearing fruit, and that his efforts 1 on behalf of the freer trade policies of President Roosevelt and the Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, have been given support by the Australian Prime Minister, thus greatly increasing the likelihood of the conversion of other Dominion Prime Ministers to the same view. Mr Lyons’s Pacific pact proposal is regarded as opening up wide pos. sibilities, but, due to the controversial nature of the subject and the insufficient outline of the proposal contained in the published dispatches, American official circles refused " to comment at least until receipt of the ext of his speech or fuller informaton ata to just what is involved. The New York Times, in a leading article, s'tates that although the turning point in the world depression was reached five years ago. the volume of world trade is still at a comparatively low level. Prohibitive tariffs still prevent the nations from profitably buying and selling each ■others' goods, lmperial Conference prompts the question whether it Is not time to renew the effort which failed at the 1933 World Economic Conference.” the Times “Although a new conference is unnecessary and might even be hazardous, progress' ,cgn be made by negotiations whenever two or more Powers are willing to ad together in the common inter, est. A trade agreement between Britain and the United States would open a wide breach in tthe tariff wall." Other newspapers have withheld an expression of their views, due principally to the fact that the speeches at the conference caught them during a week-end, which also resulted! in official comment in Washington being unavailable.