LONDON POWER COMPANY BILL (By Order).

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 22 February 1926.

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

The hon. Member is trying to induce these woolly-headed Labour Members to believe there was unemployment created in this country owing to the fact that these Russians would not order their goods here. As a matter of fact, we are more prosperous by sending the goods to America than we should be by sending them to Russia. I always think it is a great mistake to underrate the intelligence of the House of Commons by putting forward false economic arguments. I think it is also a mistake to create prejudice against perfectly legitimate trade by dealing with the character and attitude and methods of the people you want to trade with. The hon Member has told us twice already that the Russians come whining for credits. The people who are sitting on these benches to-night are not here as representing the Russian Government or the Russian people. Whether the Russians are whining for credits or not is of no interest to us. Those we are speaking for are the people in this country who want the occupation of making or finding the goods which the Russians are prepared to buy. If there is any whining in this debate it is the whining of men in the constituencies who are out of work. Hon. Members opposite do not like the Russian people or the Russian Government. The Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department went on to give us almost a historical lecture on the impossibility of doing trade with people who had not paid their debts. He told us of the people who had lost their money through trusting their investments to different Russia cities. Listening to the hon. Member, one would imagine the Russian people, the Russian towns, and the Russian State were the only ones who had repudiated their obligations. There is hardly a country in South America that has not gone through the same phase.