LOWERING TRADE BARRIERS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 69, 14 December 1935, Page 26

LOWERING TRADE BARRIERS

“A Fundamental Task” BRITISH APPEAL TO AMERICANS Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, recently broadcast from London an address to the annual women's conference on current problems, which opened in New York. The subject of the conference was “Better relations through .sounder trade relations," and the opening address was delivered by Mr. Cordell Hull, the United Stales Secretary of State. Sir Samuel Hoare said:—

Al the recent assembly of the League or Nations 1 made a speech explaining the attitude of my Government and of the British people toward their obligations to ensure peace. 1 hope that I left no doubt in anyone's mind that the British people are solidly behind the Covenant in our steady determination to resist all acts of unprovoked aggression and to substitute peaceful methods of settlement for the old methods of war.

I tried to look beyond the range of our immediate political difficulties, and i to consider how we could remove the causes of bitterness and strife. Looking to the future. I selected the question of the control and distribution of Colonial raw material as one of these causes, and 1 suggested that it would be well to anticipate possible controversy by examining it without unnecessary delay. Diagnose the Maladies. I should like to carry this idea into a wider, field. I have often thought that we tend to pay too much attention to the political situation of the moment, and that we give too little thought to the underlying economic troubles of which political problems are in many eases the immediate symptom. Should we not. like wise doctors, devote a large share of our attention to a careful diagnosis of the constitutional maladies of the world of to-day? Quite recently the League’s economic section published a small handbook called “Remarks on the Present Phase

of International Economic Relations. That little book I would comtrnnd to a,, my listeners. It is a sermon on tm 'folly of our times. Its text may m summed up in this one quotation . “am malady from which the world is now suffering is no longer entirely the crisis but rather the inability of the coun tries to co-ordinate their several effort to emerge from the crisis.” I fully agree. It seems to me thai the lowering of the barriers to inter national trade, slow and difficult as the task must inevitably be, is one ui the most fundamental of the tasks of the present time. A Liberal Trade Policy. It is a task that must be persistently and courageously pursued not only by Ministers of Commerce who desne to promote the economic welfare ol the world, but also more by all those who wish to promote International friendship and to serve the great cause of peace. Your Secretary of Slate, Mr. Cordell Hull, has constantly preached this gospel. He has eoiisisientiy maintained that the removal of obstacles to international trade and the pursuit of a liberal trade policy alone can save us from what he himself has described as "the collapse of the world structure, the fear which now grips every nation and which threatens the peace of the world.”

At the League meeting, M. Bonnet, the French Minister of Commerce, spoke in praise of the same ideai, and after a resolution had been passed in recommendation of freer trade, between the nations Mr. Hull sent a message cordially supporting the League's en deavours. 1 assure the American people that this message is a gteat enQouragement to all who have these ideals at heart.

The way is not yet eleai , but it is a source of real encouragement that the Governments of three great trading nations are looking in the same direction. This is of first-rate importance, and gives us courage to go on. The road which lies before us will not be easy; indeed, it is never easy to lake the long view, as against the short view, and to remember the ultimate good of all rather than the immediate advantage of each. You and we are great democracies—indeed, the greatest democracies in tile world—and being democracies we must appeal to the understanding aud imagination of the majority of our peoples; if we cannot carry them with us, our individual wisdom is of no avail. This is why I welcome the chance of speaking to a great American audience.

I want to convince you that we in Great Britain stand for the abolition of war and the mentality of war. whether it be on the field of battle or on the field of commerce, industry and labour. We want a new world and a new order in human relations in rvhich peace and justice, trade and intercourse, shall be secure, aud I am sure that these are also your wishes and ideals.