FREETRADE POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 453, 11 March 1909, Page 5

FREETRADE POLICY.

A DEMONSTRATION. C?!".E3H DY TV.!- 1 PRIME f.'.UiiCTCn. JIEFKRKXCJc'TO DUMPING. -V TM.-. ' '-■■■••" i ■•-"-,, 11 .-;-r,„.vI!!RIIT I (r.u;. ......cii iO, U.-J i'-:-'») . London, March 10. The Frcetrado Union held a demonstration at the Queen's Hall, presided over by Lord Avobury (Liberal Unionist), tho eminent banker and scientist. Tho Prime Minister; Mr. Asquith, moved the following resolution, which was seconded by Lord Balfour of Burleigh (a Conservative Peer and cx-Minister, who left the Conserva-tive-Unionist Government when the Freetraders seceded in 1803): That tho maintenance of tho principles and practice of Frcetrado is vital to the unity of tho Empire, the preservation of our industries, and the well-being of all classes. Mr. Asquith contended that Frcetrado, from the outset of the controversy, had been submitted to the country not as an abstract doctrine, but as the best—nay, the only system suited to the actual condition and tho industrial exigencies and necessities of British trade; while Protection, besides being injurious, would be fatal to the country's interests. The Export of Capital. With regard to the alleged displacement of capital, he admitted that the volume of capital exported from Britain was much larger than that exported from any other country; but was that, he asked, a misfortune? It went in produce representing British labour or service, and returned chiefly in the form of good raw material. The total of tho British capital invested abroad was 3000 millions; it was invested in countries from which our only imports were food or raw material. Nor had this led to the sterilisation of British industries, for tho amount of trade profits assessed for income tax during the decade ending 1907 showed an increase of 24 per cent., compared with an increase of 8.3 per cent, in population.

"Except in Times of Dumping." Regarding tho proposal -to tax foreign manufacturers, Mr. Asquith remarked that, except in times of dumping, they were either ' substantially raw material or articles which the United Kingdom was unable to produce ' —and in either case ought to be free—or they represented articles for the production of which foreign countries, cither from super- ' ior natural advantage or hotter training of workers, enjoyed a preponderating advantage. Taxing them would, besides, bo fining tho consumer, and would remove from British manufacturers the only incentive to tho improvement of their processes of manufacture. Once tariff reform was started it must bo perpetually recast, and the consumer during tho process would go to tho wall. The many would bo sacrificed to the few. Tariffs and Corrupt Influences. Freotrado, the Prime Minister continued, had developed tho Empiro's resources, and, by excluding from British politics tho sinister and illegitimate pressure of selfish forces, it had maintained the purity of public life. That was what tariff reform threatened to jeopardise. Ho predicted that the assault on Freotrado'would be repelled again, as it had been before, but the upholders of Freer, trade must emulate their opponents' ceaseless zeal and energy, and must make tho most of every occasion for argument, discussion, and conversion. MR. CHIOZZA MONEY ON THE EXPORT OF SERVICES. Mr. L. G. Chiozza Money, the well-known economic writer and M.P., lays down- that " imports, whether of goods or. service, are paid for by exports, whether of goods or services. . . . As wo (United Kingdom) have no gold or silver mines, we cannot pay for imports in cash. . . . Our foreign and colonial investments aro constantly increasing, the interest received gaining and not falling year by year. Therefore we do not sell our securities to pay for our imports. How, then, is the excess of imports of goods paid for? The answer is: By exports of another kind, the 'invisible ex-, ports,' as they are sometimes called, or exports of services. Thus, our magnificent mercantile marine, which we own through Freetrade and which forms more than one-half of the whole world's ocean shipping, brings us in ,£00,000,000, or so, of earnings every year. Our foreign and colonial investments 'bring us in about ,£100,000,000 a year more. So far from paying for imports in money, or selling our securities, we every year increase our lien upon the world." Tho late Mr. Seddon's comment on the export of sovereigns from Great Britain and the economists' biting replies will bo fresh in mind.; DUMPING, RETALIATION, AND LIBERAL IDEALS. In view of the recent declarations of the President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Winston Churchill, a special significance may attach to tho Prime Minister's words, "except in times of dumping." Mr. Churchill recently made a declaration "to the effect that retaliation, as an occasional weapon, may possibly be used." Retaliation is tlte weapon which Mr. Balfour advocated some timo ago to deal with dumping. The word retaliation on the lips of a freetra.lo Minister has been taken as indicating a remarkable degree of evolution in Liberal opinion. Mr. Andrew Bonar Law, Conservative member for the Dulwioh Division of Caraberwell, commented that Mr. Churchill's speech not long ago would hc.ve been absolutely impossible from a Liberal. It was (he added) a refreshing contrast to tho old dogma, that tho only way to fight hostile tariffs was by free imports. The following somewhat enigmatic sentence was also attributed to Mr. Churchill: "While I am responsible for tho Board of Trade, no utterance of mine shall tie the hands of the country in the taking of any steps for the permanent advantage of trade." MR. BALFOUR'S FISCAL FAITH. In a debate in the House of Commons last year the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Balfour, said:—•" You will be driven, whether you like it or not, to widen the basis of your taxation. What is tho use of hon. members voting and saying that they won't increase the burden of taxation, while it is perfectly obvious to anyone that if you increase the income-tax you destroy it as an instrument in times of exceptional strain, or that you will havo to increase the. sugar duty, the tea duty, or the death duties, which is a way of diminishing the capital, assets of the country? It is madness to look to those sources for any considerable increase in rovenue, and if you do not look to those sources, the only source to which you can look are that increase of Customs duties which I should advocate on financial grounds alone, but which I frankly admit I should welcome, and doubly welcome, if it offered a chance of i making those arrangements with our colonics [ to which I personally look forward as a great source of strength to the Empire. " But putting that consideration aside altogether, finite apart from that such arrange-, ments will most unquestionably, and on Free- , trade grounds, increase the manufacturing , powers of this country through its markets beyond the seas to a degree, great now unci ' yearly increasing, of which no man can see : tho end."