TRADE IN THE EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1922, Page 5

TRADE IN THE EMPIRE.

NEED FOR PREFERENCE. VALUE OF DOMINION MARKETS LONDON, May if. Several prominent Australians and New Zealanders, including Sir James Mitchell, Premier of Western Australia, and Mr. A. M. Myers, are making a three days' tour of the Birmingham and Nottingham district under the auspices of the Kmpire Parliamentary Association. The party also includes representatives of South Africa and Canada. The visitors were welcomed on their arrival in Birmingham by the Chamber of Commerce, nnd spent the day inspecting important factories.

The Chamber of Commerce later tendered a dinner to the visitors, at which Mr. Neville Chamberlain. M.P., presided. Proposing ihe toast of the Dominions, Mr. Chamberlain clnimed that Birmingham had learned long before the war to think Imperially and to appreciate the possibilities of the Dominions.. Birmingham citizens of all political opinions Mould, be glacl when Imperial preference leached the Statute Book. The needs of Hritain and the Dominions were mutual and complementary. While quite ready to trade with ex-enemies, even Russia, if the latter produced the money first, they did not forget that even before the war the British Dominions boußht AUiI.OOU.OOO worth of British goods annually, which was half as much again as tiermany and Russia together. If the population of the Dominions totalled oo.nnil.uoo instead of 15.000.000, there would be no unemployment in Britain. Every emigrant to the Dominions produced employment for British industries.

Sir dames Mitchell gracefully referred to the way in which Mr. Joseph Chamberlain taught Australia to think Imperially. While probably ii would be impossible to arrange absolute free trade within the Kmpire. said Sir James, we ought to come nearer to that than at present. Naturally Australia wanted to develop her manufactures as well as her agriculture, but bo believed that she ought not to tax British imports beyond the difference between rSritish and Australian wages and costs of materials. Britain could best help by sending people enuipped with capital to Australia. Western Australia, with a third of Birmingham's population, must have people who would be more valuable to Britain there than here, defensively and economically, as tbev would find larger opportunities for themselves and afford extended markets for British goods.

The House of Conu-vus passed the third readme; of the Kmpire Settlement Hill. Mr. 1.. C. M. S. Amery resisted Mr. J. C. Wedgwood's amendment to restrict the scheme to co-operation wi'h the Dominions Governments so that private organisation* would be excluded. The nniotidirvnt was withdrawn.— lA. unci N.Z. Cable. 1