EMPIRE TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 26, 31 January 1923, Page 9

EMPIRE TRADE

PROPOSED ECONOMIC CONFERENCE <

PRIME MINISTER'S "ANNOUNCE- •': ■■; ■ • " MENT •■■ • ,

'A BASIS FOR DISCUSSION

REQUIRED.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON,., 7th' December.

Communications have been sent this week to the various Dominions and colonies acquainting them of 'the 'British Cabinet's decision to hold an Imperial Economic Conference early next year. Although some replies have been received from overseas, the-Colonial Office stated to-day that the.New Zealand Government had. not yet cabled its Views. .• The definite announcement of this con- 1 fefence was made, by Mr. Bonar Law when' speaking on an amendment to the Address-in-Reply to the Speech • from the- Throne. The subject under discussion was unemployment. After dealing ■with immediate methods of'ameliorating the position,. the Prime Minister continued: ■ "I must say a few words about the possibility of more work within the Empire. That is, not a question of fiscal heresy. Take myself. I pledge myself not in this 'Parliament to alter our fiscall principle. Neither is it a question of figures. It is not a question of' the number of people who might possibly be customers, but it is a question of the number of people who are customers. I believe in the necessity of getting peace in Europe. When I tell the House that before the war the value of our trade with the Dominions, with a white population of 17,000,000, was over one-third of our trade with Europe,, with, a population' of 436,000,000, you will' understand it means. In 1913 exports ' with the Empire were two and a half times the size of our exports with all the disorganised countries of Central Europe. In 1921 they were four and a half times as large. In 1913 our import trade with the Empire was one and two-fifths of our import trade with the disorganised countries of Central Europe and the Near East. In 1921 it was nearly five times as great.. What is the explanation of 'that? There is no mystery. Trade, however bad the conditions, if it is left to its own devices, with the wicked system of private enterprise, will find some means of making the best of these bad conditions. We used to buy immense quantities of food and raw material from Russia. Now we get them, largely from other countries. The buying power has been transferred from Central Europe to other countries, <and it is there we must look for an improvement in trade in t'le near future. (Hear, hear.) It is not really a question of putting Empire first or of putting other, countries first, ' "NOT AFRAID OF A LITTLE INFLATION." " I say nothing about the need of getting Europe put on her feet. We all desire .that. But''surely riothirig could bo worse for trade than to give the impression that there can be no imprnvament until Central Europe is put right. That is the possibility of an ■ immense improvement. ■'"It was'hot electioneering merely to say I was going-to call an economic conference. Not. at all. I iim n;.'t afraid of a little inflation, -—if you are going to call it that—which chases in this country for work, the payment for which will be extended over i long time. I can , assure the House it is by that kind of- method that the nnly re.il hope of our getting out of this terrible position of unemployment lies." The Cabinet feel that, having regard to the urgency of the position, no time should be lost in preparing proposals for the development of Imperial re-! source*. -■ - .' ■ . ' A series of special articles is now appearing in the columns of tho " Morning Post " regarding the proposed conference. ■" Though this session of Parliament will be devoted exclusively to ' tha Irish Treaty," says the writer, " the preparation for an Imperial Trade Conference is a matter for Cabinet and not Parliamentary action. Mr. Bonar Law can set the machinery in .motion now 1 for the collection of data; can then came to a decision as to the general lines of tho programme which the British Government will propose, and can submit this—confidentially for preference— to the Governments of the overseas Dominions, go that the conference may meet at an early date, with some of the work of preliminary discussion already done. SERIOUS POSITION TO BE FACED. "To begin discussion %on the basis that a serious position faces us, and that the Empire should act together is the first .essential. -Mr. Bonar Law, who is not given to a facile optimism, .and who has first-hand knowledge of trade and jndustry, will probably not be avers* to this, and it is his good fortune to have in his Cabinet more than one colleague ,who can assure him that Dominion sentiment will respond best to a frank ippeal. Presuming that the conference is to be summoned in a spirit of candour, and to meet in an atmosphere of reality, the British Government might at once set its servants to work to collect data under the three following heads:— (1) The -trade relations existing before the war between foreign countries, such as France, the United States, Germany, Holland, etc., and their oversea dominions. ) (2) The general course of trade between the United Kingdom and the British overseas Dominions, year by year, since 1920. (3) The course of trade as regards particular commodities in whioh a British Empire product has been in part or in whole supplanted by a foreign product m any part of the British Dominions iince .1920." DOWNWAED TENDENCY SINCE 1900. In the'second article on the subject tho writer i quotes some interesting figures. Since the beginning of this century down" to 1920-21 the proportion of British imports to total imports has i fallen by 50 per cent, in Canada, by nearly 30 per cent, in India, by 35 per cent, in Australia, by 20 per cent, in New Zealand, by nearly 20 per cent, in South Africa. If we could restore our exports to the Dominions to the 1900 proportion, the value of British exports to Australia, in round figures, wouldhave been £61,000,000, instead of as it ■was, £43,000,000 in 1919-20; < and to Canada would have been £50,000,000 Instead of £25,000,000; and so on throughout the Dominions. The total value of increased British exports' to the Dominions, if the 1900 rate had been maintained, would have approached £100,000,000. It is not generally, recognised how very greatly British goods have been supplanted by foreign goods in our Dominion market. A table given by Sir P. Lloyd-Greame to the. Royal Colonial Institute recently; showed these jgures of tho proportion of imports from

the United Kingdom vto the total imports of the Dominions:—

To get back to the 1875 proportion (when Empire trade was saving the British manufacturer from ruin at a critical time) may seem a too optimistic aim. But the 1900 proportion is a possible immediate aim, and to obtain it would mean an enormous improvement in British industry. As it is, after the interruption of the war, we have not got back to the 1913 proportion, though the aggregate figures for 1921 show an increase in nominal value over 1913. The actual value (on a 1913, prices basis) is less; and the proportion of British im< ports, compared with total' imports iv our Dominions, shows a decline from about-50 per cent, in 1913 to about 38 per cent, in 1919-20..

aj.oro. xvw. j.»j.o. iwj-o '20. p.c. p.c. p.c. pc. [ndia „...-.... 77 65 65 47 Canada .„ 49 24 20 12 Australia 73 61 52 39 S Tew Zealand 64 62 60 48 South Africa (Cape Colony and Natal) , 33 65 56 56