CHEAP SUGAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 8

CHEAP SUGAR.

(To tie Editor.)

Sir, —The present seems to be an opportune time to draw attention to the facts relating to the effects of cheap German subsidised sugar prior to the war. The result, as is well known, was that while sugar refiners were thrown out of work, the manufactures into which sugar entered as a raw material wer c boomed, so much so that the additional employment provided greatly exceeded what was lost. Some of the sugar found its way back to Germany in the shape of commodities into which British labour had been put. Cheap imports are the life of production of all kinds, especially production" for export, enabling the exporting country .to compete on the best footing with trade rivals. Peel said, "We will fight foreign competition with cheap imports," and he did it successfully. Instances could be multiplied ad libitum showing how cheap imports, though causing unemployment in certain directions, have increased largely employment as a whole. Why, then, should it be assumed that cheap s.ugar will mean loss of employment to Britain ? WThat has happened in the meantime to reverse the beneficial results of the past as shown above?—l am, etc., FREE TRADE.