Evening star., 1924-05-04
BY HENRY W. BUM.

BY HENRY W. BUM.
The following is brief summary of
the most important news of the world
for the seven days ended May ;:
= ::
The British Empire.-On April %
Philip Snowden. chancellor of the ex-
chequer, submitted to the Commons
the first Labor budget. 1t certainly
does not smack of Bolshevism in the
slightest degree, and. indeed. Mr.. AS
quith the Liberal leader, had reason"
when he termed it a Liberal and free
trade budget, indicating the Liberals
for turning out the Conservatives"
Its most important features are the
reduction troughly, by half) of the
duties on certain breakfast commodI-
ties" Oea. sugar. coffee. cocoa, in
chief, reduction of amusement taxes
(abolition for the cheaper seats);
abolition of the war duties on GER
tain manufactured articles tmotor
vehicles and moving picture films, IN
chief, and abolition of the corpora
loss of revenue from operation of the
proposed (for the budget has yet to
pass the Commons) additions and re-
ductionS is estimated at about fortS
million pounds. an amount not so very
great when compared with the totai
estimated revenue of eight hundreu
million pounds.
The budget is, indeed, more inter
esting for what it omits than Tor
what it proposes. 1t does not give
effect to any of those proposals look
ing to extension of application of the
principle of Imperial preference mace
by the imperial conference OF pre-
miers and concurred in by the late
The Conservatives assert that these
not propose any reduction OF the IN
come taxes, which imposed an alto-
gether unprecedented burden on inc
moneyed glasses.
In the debate on the budget the
Conservative attack is being directed
chiefly against the first-named omls-
sion. In his very able speech pre-
Senting the budget, Mr.. SnoWden polu
ly announced that his government
completely disapproved the principle
of imperial preference moreover
he said, that government reserved the
right to propose, all in due time, com
plete demolition of the existing 1ao-
ric based on imperial preference:
Sir Robert Horne, for the ConserN-
atives, declared that SO to hout the
wishes of the outlying common,
wealths of the empire was to lmperil
continuance of the empire and was
to renounce present economic adVan-
future advantages. He cited some as
tonishing statistics. For example, as
early as 1913 the total annual value
of manufactured goods purchased
from Britain by Russia, with popu-
lation of 176,OOO,O00, was scarcely
greater than the value of purchases
by New Zealand, with population of
100000.
In 1922 the outlying parts of the
British empire took upward of A per
cent lin value) of British manufac-
tdred exports. Since the initiation of
the policy of imperial preference the
trade of Britain with the rest of the
empire has remarkably increased,
both absolutely and relatively to the
trade of Britain with the world out
side the empire.
on the other hand the mendacious-
ness of statistics should not be for
gotten and statistics of world-trade
since 1914 particularly. require care
full scrutiny and analysis. The argu-
ments against a policy tending to i'm
periai self -sufficiency are powerful,
and for the moment hold the field.
The Conservatives assert that these
arguments have their support as
much in superstition as in reason !;