BRITAIN'S FISCAL SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 70, 24 March 1933, Page 6

BRITAIN'S FISCAL SYSTEM.

I regret that my brief, and I hope courteous questions to Mr. Doklge should have aroused so much ire. Mr. r ) ; dge would have been more illuminating and convincing had ho answered my questions instead of pouring j ridicule on statements whibl) I did not make* May I again ask where is the logic' in till' Empire free trader's argument that the British ' farmer must be protected against wheat from the Argentine because it puts agricultural labourers out of work, but if it conies from India it does not? Sir. Doidge did not attempt; to answer that qrestion. Sir. Doidge says it is tiresome to flnd anyone holding my views, > even in far-away New Zealand! Why refer to far-away New Zealand , / At the last by. election, contested by a Beaverbrook candidate in Britain (Ka&t Fife), he polled barely sufficient votes to recover his deposit. To be precise, the gentleman in question, Mr. J. L. Anderson, got 4000 votes out of a total of over 29,000, This was on the 3rd of last month! A study of the votes allotted to,. I Beaverbrook Candida tee —apparently no Empire trade candidate was nominated . for jfclio i liotherhani election —indicates that very few-people-are prepared to subscribe to the Beaver- •■ brook platform, even in the country of its. origin. Sir. Doidge objects to my quotation from Lord Beaverbrook's speech at Leedv because it was uttered fix months ago, "before the benefits of protection had had time to make themselves felt." Well, this is what the noblt lord said at Fife on February 2 last, on the eve of the East Fife by-election: "The National Government has failed dismally to make good itre promise. If we could substitute a Conservative for the present National Government I would support it. ,. But apparently his eloqueiice was wasted, for even the majority of the Tories themselves supported the National candidate! Mr. Doidge quotes the U.S.A. as an example of the benefit,* of high protection. Could he quote a- more unfortunate example! ; What country has made a bigger mess of itj\ fiscal system? What country is in a worse industrial condition? lie says they have , aroneed no enmity on the part of the rest of the world. Where are their friends? Finally, ' Mr. Doidge asserts that a miracle has been . wrought in Britain. Apparently his leader; Lord Beaverbrook, thinks differently, and to - does the British Chamber of Shipping,, whose annual report is public-hod in the "London Chronicle" on the lath of last month. It states: "The year under review, haa been one of still greater gravity for shipping. There has been a general shortage of cargo ■and passenger traffic ha* continued to decline, Exports decreased by £13,000,000. Over 14,500,000 tons of shipping is laid up. Prosperity in the slapping industry can only be restored if trade barriers of all kinds are reduced and ultimately abolished." ' On the same date Mr. Lloyd r George asserted in the House of Commons that unemployment in Britain had increased by half a million during th"e past twelve months. We know that our primary products are bringing record low pricee and that we have been asked to curtail our exports; This must further react detrimentally on the shipping industry. I am not a Cobdenite, as Mr. Doidge suggests, neither will I yield in loyalty to any of Lord Beaverbrook'e supporters, but I contend that Empire free trade is no solution to our difficulties and has moreover been rejected by every economist of repute as an utterly impracticable doctrine. R. C. SIMMONS.