The order under the Import Duties Act to increase by
50 per ce.tt. the duties on Iron and Steel produced a good debate. The Labour and Liberal members who spoke had clearly taken great trouble to get at the facts and produced a formidable case for the rejection of the Order. -Mr. D. R. Grenfell, who is rapidly becoming a really effective opposition debater, drove home the argument with great force that these increased. duties would have serious repercussions on the export trade. Mr. Graham White Tor the Liberals asked the pertinent question -whether the increase would be dropped if an agreement with the international combine were reached as a result, and received from Dr. Burgin this answer, which is worth giving as a model of ministerial vagueness on the objective of the tariff weapon. " These duties are not an end in themselves, but the means to an end. If agreement is reached, it will be possible, and may. be necessary, to review' the action taken under this order,"
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