THE WORLD'S TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 19, 22 January 1921, Page 5

THE WORLD'S TRADE

SPEECH BY MR. LLOYD GEORGE

"WORK WITH:BOTH EANI>S."

(FRO* ODH OWK COSRISPOIIDSNT.i

LONDON, 2nd December.

As guest of the Federation of British. Industries, Mr. Lloyd George delivered a thoughtful speech on the subject of the world's'trade. It was very important, he' said, that the Government should have a body coming to it which spoke on behalf of business as a whole. Labour was getting organised, and he would rather talk to an organised labour than to labour disorganised. He was glad that the great business community—those who had the directing brains of industry —were coming together and federating and combining and co-operating, and were, he hoped, prepared to give a common counsel to the Government.

Referring to the period of depression 'which he feared was unavoidable, \Mr. Lloyd George.said that before anything could be done to cure or mitigate the condition of things it was necessary to have a clear indication of tho causes and a readiness to acknowledge, them whatever they were/ c , , ' WORLD-WIDE TRADE SLUMP.

The first thins we have got 1« get into our minds is this: The causes are not 'peculiar to our country. They are something that affects the whol« world. Countries with totally different economic systems are suffering alike—protectionist Ijuntries, free-trade countries; countries with good Governments and with bad Governments. It is raining on the just and on tlie unjust. (Laughter). And take the structure'of society: Socialist countries are' suffering just like these wretched individualists. -The working classes are more wretched where the sun of liberty is shining oh. them under Lenin and Trotsky than they' are in this beniffhted country, where they are locked up in the - dungeons of capitalism. (Laughter and cheers.) If you are to get at whaj> ia going to be done. lei. us get rid of the notion that this is a cause which is limited or circumscribed., by something that happened in this land. Very often .we seem to have forgotten" that there lias been a war. Has any one taken a piece of paper and njekoned up what it cost, not here, but to the world? It cost over forty thousand million sterling, and the damage that has been done, cannot be repaired by another ten thousand million. There you have ■fifty thousand million sterlinc of destruction, and there were ten million young, vigorous lives and ten'million of crinnle's. ■"What need is there to seek'beyond that? POVERTY-STRICKEN CUSTOMERS.

"What has happened is'that your customers are poverty-stricken.. The: printing presses may save you for a, time, but you cannot, always carry a sack of paper on your, backs. That is vrhat is happening : in Europe. They cannot; get on without it, and they cannot buy, and when they buy they cannot pay.' Did' you evet' Njs€e the spectacle of a, man in rags, down at heel,', standing in front of a shop-window looking at clothns'and boots, all, the latest .fashion, and ydur say: 'Why doesn't he buy?. He is on the rocks, he needs them. Why doesn't he buy? Why doesn't he go into the shop?' Ho cannot pay. Europe stands in front of your shop-window, stocked with the best goods that any, man can turn out. • ' • . : , FIRST REMEDY—-PEACE, y " Europe is in rags and wants clothes; ■ but their pockets are full of paper; they can't buy; and until your customer is in a condition to. trade with you we shall have difficulties. Do not let us work-up, pretended causes of this slump; keep to realities. Europe, Britain,- the world, has got to» work its way back to a full purse—(cheers)—^and until it does it nothing that Governments can do, nothing that federations can do, ' and, Heaven' knows, nothing that newspaper articles j can do, "will be of any-use. N_o Bolshevik paner money will ever *help; us j througS to . the solution of , ' the problem, and that is the first thing. The first remedy is peace. * Europe cannot work its way back to prosperity unless it has peace. There is a great story of reconstruction in" a great old Book, of men who reconstructed, a broken city with trowel in one hand and sword in the other. Ii was not very quick •work. _ It was worse than working,under trade ' union regulations. (Laughter.) Europe, to get back, must work with both hands. She cannot handle swords arid- trowels. The whole energy of business men, of workmen, of statesmen, ought to be concentrated on this task of working up the impoverished /purse of mankind. Don't stand those men who are constantly blowing up the embers of tho fir©;* stamp oi.it. the. men who are going about with petrol tins in order to start fresh fires in the world. They are a curse,, whatever their profession, and it is not confined to Bolsheviks; or Sinn Feiners. Leave the industries, insofar as is possible, to work out their own salvation. In the main our 1 policy is that' the less interference with trade there is on the part of the Government the better it is for trade and the better it is for the Government. ' THE NATION MUST FOLLOW. "As the 'Cabinet has 'appointed x _a committee to cut down expenditure,; 1^ suggest, there should be a committee in every" household to cut down expenditure. I know what will happen. (A voice: 'Divorce!') Each member of the family will want to cut the expenses of the other. The ladies will cut down the cigar bill, and tho men- will cut down the dress bill. (Laughter.) That is what happens in the public expenditure, but it is essential, if the. nation is to l-ecover, that there should bo rigid, ruthless economy for some,time to come." • „