News of the Week
EIRE Abnormal Importations Act duties of 50 per cent., I levied on a list of twenty-three selected articles in the manufactured or semi-manufactured category, came into force on Wednesday. The value of a normal year's importations of such articles is something over 120,000,000, though on the basis of the October figures, which admittedly represented a sudden spurt, the total for a full year would be over £40,000,000. Mr. Runciman has succeeded reasonably well in avoiding taxes on the raw material of industry, and of the export trade in particular, excluding leather, and, so far, iron and steel, on that ground. That is so much to the good, and the more completely it is realized that the duties are levied for a limited period, six months, and for a definite purpose, the limitation of abnormal importations, the better. But of course the Protectionists are accepting them as a first instalment of Protection and demanding the extension of the duties on that ground alone, quite irrespective of abnormal growths in the volume of imports. Equal Pressure is being exerted in the hope of forcing an imme- diate announcement of agricultural protection, but the Cabinet has so far agreed only to certain emergency measures. To limit imports of denture bowls, and even silk stockings, is one thing. To tax food and send up the cost of living at the moment when it is essential to keep internal prices steady is quite another, as the Government may yet be made to realize. Even a 15 per cent. quota of home-grown wheat in the loaf means dearer bread.
