NEW ZEALAND’S REAL MARKET

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 146, 17 March 1934, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND’S REAL MARKET

Mr. G. B. Shaw’s Views “KEEP YOUR WOOL ON YOUR OWN BACKS” “You have no business to let New Zealand remain dependent on what you amusingly call the Home market, or any other overseas market. The real home market for New Zealand is the North Island, plus the South. “See what happened to the Central Empires of Europe in 1918. Nature had given them every possibility of selfsupport, and had made them impregnable to blockade. Yet they were starved out like rats in a trap because they had made themselves dependent on foreign trade. “Keep your wool on your own backs; harness your own water power; get your fertilising nitrates from your own air; develop your own manufactures, and eat your own food, and you can snap your fingers at Britain's follies.” This trenchant reply was given by Mr. George Bernard Shaw in the course of an exclusive interview to the Christchurch “Star” aboard the Rangitane at Auckland in reply to the query, “Since New Zealand depends almost entirely upon the Home market, what chance is there for a return of prosperity in the Dominion so long as Britain allows foreign countries to Hood the Home market with cheap products.” “Imaginative Illusions. “What are the feelings of the average Briton toward New Zealanders and toward the Empire generally?" Mr. Shaw replied. “They have none really. The Dominions can indulge in all sorts of imaginative illusions about the British islands, and even call them Home in their sentimental moments, but that side of life does not exist in England. Many Englishmen, with astronomical tastes, are keenly interested in the moon. Their interest in New Zealand may be guessed from .a letter I had before starting, from a lady who said she had heard I was going to New Zealand, and hoped I would stay with her daughter, who has a very nice house inSydney.” “What chance has Nazism in Britain?” Mr. Shaw was asked. “As much as anywhere else,” lie replied. "Nazism is an overwhelming reaction against the Parliamentary system introduced in England by William the Third and copied-•ever since in all directions by great commercial States with the object of restricting and paralysing Government, and leaving commercial enterprise free, in the name of liberty. The result is that Parliaments are good for nothing but obstruction. Aspirations of Japan. “While on your recent visit to Japan, did you form any views as to Japanese aspirations in regard to Australia ami New Zealand?’' “It is not necessary to visit Japan to form views on that subject. Perhaps the less said about it the better. One thing, however, is clear. From the point of view of the old Conservative diplomacy, Australia and New Zealand have an overwhelming interest in the development of Communism in China and its maintenance in Russia. In the East, the Red Hag is the safeguard of the Union Jack. You have only to Imagine China and Russia as capitalist Powers, whether under Japanese control or in competition with her, to realise the truth of this. Unfortunately our capitalist statesmen, in their blind dread of Communism as such, are apt to forget the hard facts df Australasia’s under-population and Asiatic over-popu-lation, and the obsolescence of the military and naval conditions on which New Zealand has hitherto depended for her immunity from, invasion.” “How long will the National Government last in Britain?” "Until the next general election. After that anything may happen.” “Always Imminent.” “Is anol her war imminent in Europe? If so will Britain pursue a policy of splendid isolation or will she allow herself to be drawn into it?” "War is always imminent nowadays, but it is not always imminent wars that come off. The most imminent war at the moment is between Russia and Japan, but if the Japanese are wise they will not court the fate of Napoleon. Britain is not likely to go in on the side of Russia, and if her Russophobist diplomatists attempted to drag her in on the side of Japan, what would New Zealand and Australia say?” “If the views of a pessimist are correct and London is completely wiped out in the next war, where will the next empire capital be—. Montreal, Sydney. or Auckland?” "As Montreal, Sydney and Auckland will be wiped out, too, the question is hardly worth pressing, but London will not be wiped out. London will surrender at discretion. So will all the other capitals, and they will all live happily forever after." - Britain’s Dictator. “Will Britain ever come under a regime of any dictator?” “Britain is at present under the regime of thousands of dictators, called employers' and landlords, whose powers are greater and more intimate, and come doser- home than those of any Political dictator. They are nationally irresponsible ami do not profess to seek anything but their own individual profit.” Tile Films Question. If you want New Zealanders to have the Hollywood mind, keep out Russian films; they are magnificent, but they are utterly contemptuous of sex appeal, idle luxury and class insolence,” added Mr. Shaw. "Personally I would back any country educated by Russian films against any country educated by Hollywood films, but regarded as mere amusement. Hollywood films have their claims, too." “Will Roosevelt's Recovery Plan succeed ?” “Up to a point it has succeeded. The struggle to bring private interests under public control—led in Italy by Mussolini, in Germany by Hitler, in Turkey by Kemal, and in the States by Roosevelt—is arduous and cannot be said to l>e completely successful until control is so complete ami the sources of production so fully nationalised that the country is entirely independent of private interests. The first step is to get rid of our negative and obstructive Parliamentary safeguards against ancient tyrannies and oppressions, and substitute positive, powerf’d high-speed systems. If you persist In your party system of electing one set of men to do the country's work and another set to prevent their doing it, the result will be a state of things in which it takes thirty years to do Half an hour's work, and the end of that will be that some day you will have to do thirty years' work in half an hour, and that may prove a rather bloody business. Ami now I have given you enough to think about for the present. Good niornlag 1 “.