The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1930. EMPIRE AND WORLD TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 171, 22 July 1930, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1930. EMPIRE AND WORLD TRADE.

. For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistatuM, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

It is a most significant fact that the campaign inaugurated at Home in support of Empire Free Trade has occasioned much apprehension and anxiety in economic and commercial circles abroad. In France the Ministry of Commerce has adopted an attitude of "watchful waiting," but its experts have already intimated that the neAv policy may "menace the economic security of Europe." In Germany a prominent member of the Reichstag has suggested that any change in Britain's fiscal policy may react injuriously upon the whole Empire. But at the same time he hints that the separate trade agreements made by the Dominions with Germany may be imperilled, and he even fears that Imperial Reciprocity may mean the exclusion of Europe and America from valuable sources of raw material which they have hitherto been able to exploit.

It may be pointed out that both these criticisms imply, on the one hand, an admission of the immense value of Britain's markets. The Germans in particular are extremely anxious that Britain should maintain the existing fiscal system, and this in effect means that so-called "free trade" is beneficial to them, irrespective of its effects on Britain. As to the reference to Germany's trade agreements, this may serve to recall the bitter controversy stirred up. by Canada's original offer of preferential treatment to Britain. When it became evident that Britain was gaining ground in Canada's markets thirty years ago, as a consequence of the new Preferential Trade system, the German Government tried to coerce Canada into granting similar concessions to German goods, and even threatened to boycott Canadian goods in German markets unless the Canadians acceded promptly to their demands.

But Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Chamberlain then notified Germany that Britain would not tolerate any interference in the internal affairs of her Empire, and that any attempt on Germany's part to penalise Canada for granting trade concessions to the Mother Country would provoke vigorous retaliation. From that time onward foreign governments have wisely refrained from remonstrances against Preferential Trade, which, from the standpoint of Britain and the Dominions, is merely a mutual adjustment of their own domestic affairs. No doubt the protectionist countries have been compelled to feel that any attempt to exclude them from the Empire markets must injure their trade, but it is not easy to see what they can do to defend themselves. They can hardly retaliate effectively, for most of them already exclude from their own markets the goods which they can produce for themselves. But Britain, on the other hand, if she were to complete a system of Imperial Reciprocity by putting on protective duties against foreign goods, would at once supply herself with a weapon which would secure for her products better treatment in foreign markets than they now receive.