Orders of the Day — Dominion and Colonial Affairs.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Colonel Josiah Wedgwood Colonel Josiah Wedgwood , Newcastle-under-Lyme

What a lot of propaganda we have had to-day!—Imperial propaganda, and very efficient propaganda. The hon. Member for Lancaster (Sir G. Strickland) urges Imperial propaganda against Bolshevism, and the right hon. Gentleman opposite suggests propaganda in favour of buying British goods. I wonder whether many hon. Members on this side of the House when they welcomed with joy the expenditure of £1,000,000 a year on Imperial marketing, realised on what it was going to be spent. Propaganda! There was an idea that it was going to be used to buy goods in the Colonies cheap and sell them to the people in this country on terms which the consumer would appreciate. Not a bit of it. That is Socialism. No! Half a million pounds this year is to go on propaganda, except one little bit which is to be spent on research. I understand there is to be research, paid for, as to the best method of transporting meat by cold storage. Who will get the benefit of that expenditure on research? I notice Mr. Robert Joyce, the Queensland Commercial Commissioner, put it in this way: On the Empire's consumption in one year there was a difference between the prices paid to the grower and the prices paid by the consumer of £156,000,000—equal to 7d. per 1b. Where does the difference go? Vestey's will get the biggest share of it. Vestey's will get the benefit of the expenditure of all that part of this £500,000 which is spent on research into methods by which Mr. Vestey can get his goods here more cheaply. I cannot help thinking the British Empire had better get away from propaganda and get back to honest, hard work. It was not propaganda that made the British Empire; and propaganda, whether anti-Bolshevist or pro-British—