WEEK-END IN LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 67, 18 March 1916, Page 13

WEEK-END IN LONDON.

THE ECONOMIC WAR.

DOMINIONS AHD CONSCRIPTIO-I

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 1*The event of the week, from the ppi"» of view of the New Zealander in Loudou, is the debate in the House on *«*«£ Hewins' resolution, "That with a ««* to increasing the power 01 the AlheaiU the prosecution of the war Government should enter into immediate consultation with the Government* ot the Dominions, in order, with their aid. to bring the whole economic strength ot the Empire into co-operation with our Allies in a policy directed against the Hewins has been greatly 'ft the background since his election a3 a member for Hereford. As the protagonist of Tariff Reform, he has had no opportunity for raising his voice in We House. But his time has come. And to a House, less full than it should have been on a question so fateful to Imperwl outlook, but one with an expert audience of official colonial representatives keenly following it in the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery, he broke ground va a subject very much his own. It is of interest to recall that Ptot. Hewins relinquished a comparatively poorly-paid post—Director of the School of Economics, in those early days when it was a struggling private enterprise, and not under the aegis of London University—to act as secretary of the Tariff Commission established by Mr. Joseph. Chamberlain. In the debate, too, curiously enough, a part was taken by Prof. Hewins , successor in the School of Economics, Mr. Mackinder, now M.P. for Glasgow, (Camtachie), while to the latter succeeded Mr. Pember Reeves, who etill holds the headship of that enterprising adjunct of London University's; young activities. THE PARIS CONFERENCE. The most interested listeners in the Gallery were representatives of the Dominions anxious to have the subject thrashed out on that historic debating groimd. It is engrossing much of their attention prior to the conference to which they are summoned in Paris next month, when they will discuss practical means whereby the Hewins resolution shall be made effective. There are outside the House a number of official and semi-official organisations springing into being to help along this cause. CO-ORDINATION OF WAR SUPPUES. Yesterday the Lord Mayor marked hU appreciation of the work of the Commission Internationale de Revitailleinent by entertaining them to luncheon. The Commission's aims are to centralise and co-ordinate the purchases of food supplies, military and naval equipment, and munitions of war required by the Allie3. and to prevent unprofitable competition between the Allied Governments. Experience of the work of the Commission, which has extended over seven months, and has involved purchases of over £100,000,000 sterling, has shown that, as a result of ■ this, system.': of organisation, the Allied Governments can obtain goods of better quality and at a lower price than the? could secure through the medium of irresponsible private The Grand Duke Michael, as epokesinan for the Commission and for Russia, talked of munitions. Munitions first, and munitions last, he said, was the crying I need of the Allies.

As I happen to know, the work 01, such committees is of an-", importance' scarcely credible to the man in the street. For instance, a difference of a week or so in, the purchase of one sort of textile alone that ie being eaten up by the 100,000' yards in clothing the B,rmy, means an added burden to the nation of a quarter of a million sterling, "fllis i<* one item only! <, THE CONSCRIPTIOH ISSUE. The other issue—conscriptifjji—has been influenced largely by the. example of New Zealand's Defence Force, the merits of which have been largely canvassed. In the end we haye here an essentially British compromise. While, by a ten to one vote the House has plumped for Compulsion, we have still roing on, and it is announced it will continue for six weeks, the. Derby voluntary enlistment. A VERY ROUND PEG. Both debates —that on fiscal developments and on conscription, show a breaking 'down -of party lines—Liberals of the Sir Henry Dalziel following, as befits Sir Henry's close friendship Mr. Lloyd George, "being coneuriptionists, _ the Simon-led Liberals being of the "anti" echool. /The anomaly is' ( evea more marked in the by-elections which, mark this week. In especial, did Sir Geo. Reid's candidature for St. George'a Hanover Square, emphasise this. j One newspaper commented thus on his standing for a Conservative constituency:— "Rather an odd tiling, a Liberal and a Free Trader like Sir George Reid, as member'for aristocratic St. George's. . . The point is briefly that Sir George Reid is a very round peg in a Hanover Square hole." SHIPS AND FREIGHTS. Evidence accumulates that co-ordina-tion is badly wanted in the organisation of the economic war. A question in the House elicited the fact that in fifteen months 247 British ships had been transferred to foreign flage. To-day Mr. Alfred Sooth, director of the Cunard Line, writes in the "Times " apropos to the rise in 1914 and 1015 of 29/ in the price of wheat and il/6 in freight. Ha says:—"By lowering the freights we cannot increase the carrying power ot the ships, for they are coming to thia country laden to their utmost capacity. On the other hand, by fixing freights below the rates current in the International Freight Market, we" shall risk losing the carrying power of foreign shipping which still brings into this country one-third of our imports. If the price of wheat is to be brought down, the total available supply in this country must be increased, and to enable this to be done, additional shipping tonnage must be employed. If the military requirements are such as to preclude the releaee of vessels for' trading purpose?, then the additional shipping tonnage to carry the wheat can only be provided by shutting out some of the other cargoes now coming to this country. The ' freight market is merely the "thermos meter which records the extent to which military demands have eaten into tha carrying power of the merchant chips of the world, and the progress of a disease cannot be checked by any arbitrary adjustment of the temperature recorded."