“OPEN DOOR” APPEAL

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 186, 4 May 1937, Page 9

“OPEN DOOR” APPEAL

Mr. Bruce on World Trade London, April 22. The High Commissioner for Australia, Mr. S. M. Bruce, who was the principal guest at the dinner of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, declared that Britain’s prosperity rested on the insecure bases of protectionism, rehousing ami rearmament. Rearmament might tempt industrialists to take the easy path of concentrating on the home market to the exclusion of the export trade, he said, but, once exports were lost, they would never be regained. Now was the moment to take the initiative and lower the tariff barriers, to which the Scandinavian countries, the United States and Belgium were agreeable. The “open door” in trade should apply not only lo the Dominions, but also to Europe, thus increasing world prosperity. This was the only way of checking the rearmament race, which was probably leading to a catastrophe. Speaking at a meeting in support of ’an appeal io wipe out the debt on the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells. Mr. Bruce said: “In the political field, the nations seem to he getting farther apart, and in the economic field all efforts to bring about better relations seem to be unsuccessful. Culture and art still happily survive, and they will probably be the most potent factors in bringing about a better understanding.”