The Dominion SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1925. TRADE THAT MUST BE FOSTERED

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 223, 20 June 1925, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1925. TRADE THAT MUST BE FOSTERED

Aspects of .trade between Britain and the Dominions needing all the practical attention that can be given to them were touched upon by Sir George Elliot in his address, as chairman, at the annual meeting of the Bank of New Zealand yesterday. Sir George did not deal with these matters only as a banker interested -in exchange and other details of the financial machinery of trade Tie has just returned from a visit to England, and what he had to say yesterday shows that while away he made use of his opportunities for observation. .... . He dealt interestingly with the extent to which views on trade policy still commonly held in Britain diverge from those that prevail in the Dominions. It is claimed by many otherwise well-informed persons in the Mother Country, he pointed out amongst other things, that the New Zealand Customs preferences are more apparent than real and that their abolition would not materially affect British trade. The’ prevalence of this erroneous opinion no doubt does a good deal to impede the development of a more effective co-operation between Britain and the Dominions in matters of trade. Fortunately, ideas on this subject are beginning to clear in Britain. Of late there have been many complaints by the. representatives of British exporting industries that these industries ate severely handicapped by the protectionist policy of foreign countries. This in itself must tend to concentrate attention on the favourable treatment given to British goods here and in other Dominions. There are, of course, sections of British industry m which the facts are very clearly realised. . ' , , Some time ago, for example, a leading representative of. the British electrical trade stated that this industry owed its remaining external markets in great part to the preference granted, by the Dominions. It is rather extraordinary that, anyone in Britain should doubt the value of Dominion preference in face of such facts as were cited the other day by the Secretary of State for the Dominions. Mr. Amery stated on that occasion that Australia and New Zealand” bought between them last year over £BO,OOO 000 worth of British goods, and that this meant that one Australian or New Zealander was worth to British trade six hundred times as much as a Russian (and Britain to-dav is doing nearly as much trade with Russia and with succession States formerly part of Russia as she did . with Russia before the war), a hundred times as much as a Chinese and twenty times as much as an American. ■ Customs preference, of course, contributes in a. very important, degree to the heavy consumption of British goods in these Dominions. Sir George" Elliot dealt with another vital phase of this great question when he said it was obvious that unless British industry was fostered, Great Britain could not continue indefinitely to be the splendid market that she had been for colonial produce. T his is the simple truth, and it needs attention in the Dominions as well as in Britain. ./„... ■ . • • The policy of open markets, which Britain is maintaining in spite of an increasing inflow of foreign manufactured imports which deprives her own people of employment, is not only undermining British prosperity, but threatens progressively to impair the only really good market the Dominions can hope to find for a considerable part of their export produce. If Britain fostered her own industi. . > by well-consideieu measures of protection, there would be no need to ask her to grant tariff preference on foodstuffs or other produce imported from. the Dominions. Full tariff reciprocity between Britain and the Dominions is clearly impracticable, but as its real value comes to be better understood in Britain, the preference extended to that country by the Dominions should count heavily as a factor making for a bold change in British trade policy. _ . .... It is as obvious that this policy is helping British industries as that these are being desperately handicapped by . the protectionist policy of foreign countries. The moral for Britain is, oi should be, very plain. It is open to her to extend, not preference only, but protection, to her own industries.