EMPIRE TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 54, 7 March 1929, Page 14

EMPIRE TRADE

WAY TO ..PEOSPEEITT MINISTERIAL ADVICE ''Buy from those who-buy from you." This is the advice which tlio 'Bight Hon. Sir thiJjp. Cunliffe-Lister, president of the Board b£ Trade, gives as a means of paving the way..to Empire prosperity. The advice 'is : contained iv an article which Sir Philip has contributed to tlie January issue-of "British Industries." Overseas trade is vital to this country (he writes)... We are dependent on overseas countries for a large part of the raw material for our industries, and we have to pay for those supplies by exporting other goods,, mainly manufactured articles. With the growing industrialisation of many countries, the problem of providing markets for ■ our exports becomes more and more difficult. Fortunately, in the overseas parts of the British Empire there are countries whose needs are largely complementary to ', our own. They want our 'markets ;for -their surplus food and other primary produce, and in return they need manufactured goods of many kinds. A few examples will illustrate how valuable/ compared with foreign' markets, are British markets to each other. Thus in 1027, United - Kingdom goods were taken by Canada to the value per head of her population of £3 Is sd; by the Union of South Africa, £3 18s 8d; by Australia, £9 18s sd, and by New Zealand, #3 12s lid; whereas' the. United State's took 7s Bd, Germany 13s 3d, and even Denmark only £2 16s5d. "I£ we look at the other side o£ the picture, the exports of Empire countries overs_eas,. a similar, position is disclosed. In recent yearly periods, we have taken Canadian goods to the value of £1 17s 2d per head of: our , population, while the United States took 16s 7d and Germany 2s 9d worth. From Australia we have taken the equivalent of £1 Is Id per head, while the United States took Is 5d and Germany 3s Id. These figures make it abundantly clear that the best way of stimulating,exportß from the overseas parts of theV.Empire.'onthe one hand, and from the United. Kingdom on the. other hand, is for each party to buy as large a proportion of its purchases as possible from the other. 'Buy from, those who buy from pus' means in practice that the easiest way to increase the prosperity of each' part of the Empire, and of the Empire as a whole* is, by the development of inter-Imperial I trade. .' . ;

' "It is therefore satisfactory to observe that the relative importance to the United Kingdom of its trade with the other parts of the Empire is increasing. In 1913 we took from the overseas parts of the Empire 24.9 per cent, of our total imports, and of our total exports, 37.2 per cent, was consigned to them. In 1927, comparing like with like,",the 'corresponding figures were 26.9 per' cent. for. imports and 42.6 per cent, for exports. Moreover, there is every, ground..-to believe that, with the rapid rate I'of development of many parts of the Empire, this inter-Imperial trade will continue to-grmy, perhaps even more rapidly. Tn the short period between 1923 and .1927. the total trade of the Dominions'has increased by some 20 per cent, in value, in spite of the fall in prices in this period, while that of British West Africa and British East Africa has increased by as much as 50 per cent. It is reasonable to suppose that the economic development of the Empire will progress even more rapidly in the neav future."