EMPIRE FREE TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 74, 28 March 1930, Page 4

EMPIRE FREE TRADE

PLAN OF CAMPAIGN

(From "The Post's" Representative.) '•;■ ,-? LONDON, 30th January. Lordßeaverbrooli has been asked to explain how he proposes that the plan for tho Free Trade Empire shall be put into practical operation. In the course of his reply t he says:— "Ourrproject begins with what may most conveniently be called the Colonial Empire—that is .to say,; the vast association of territories, populations, and resources which, is made up by the non-self-governing Crown Colonies and other Dependencies, excluding India and Egypt. These can be classified in three groups:". . '■■■,-• .: . (1). Americari-^-British West Indies, British -Honduras, British Guiana; (2) African —Nigeria, Gold Coast; Gambia, Sierra 'Leone, Sudan/Kenya, Uganda, Northern B'hodesia; (3) Asiatic—Ceylon, Malaya, Hong Kong, British. Borneo. ' •■'-■.."'. . .. " . ■ : ■ "I have set' out this Jist in. full so as to. supply a readily comprehensible proof that these Possessions in themselves constitute a huge Empire. Itis iv extent'almost as large as the whole of the French Colonial Empire, or as the United States with' the territories which* are dependent on them. In its resources it is richer than all the colonial empires of the world put together. "We propose that Great Britain and all these lands shall bo formed into a Free Trade Empire as soon as may be. Some of-theto are at present bound by treaties'whi^h would stand in the way of thisj-but' the revision of which pre-sentsi-no; insuperable difficulty. We should then stand on the same footing with dura Colonial Empire" as America and France^ with theirs. - In other words|vits.markets would be open 'to us arid -would be barred to other nations,: and. it; would find with us the markets beft.fitted to develop all its resources. ' ; :- "The imports..of merchandise of this Colonial^Eppiire amounted already in 1027. tpi : £25,5,0()1b,0p0 (making no allowance jf^rfrejieiports), and their progressive rate of/increase leads to the legitimate that by 1940 at latest theyiwUl jibt be less than £750,000,000— or more than the total exports of Great Britain.: • v But of their present imports only onVquarter comes from this country.};; There is here evidently an immense;{field for the export trade both of Gr^at Britain and of such of the Dominions :as wish to share it with her." Having created this economic unit, Lord Beaverbrook proposes to invite such of the Dominions as desired to enter the circle on their, own conditions; and he suggests that Canada would probably think it worth her while to join, and in exchange for a protected market--here-against-^-American and Argentine subsidised wheat, to grant a protected market in Canada to British coal, structural steel, and steel plates. That would carry with it unrestricted Free ,J£rade, : ..between. jQanada^ and the whole "of :^hcr::c6iomai-:3Brripire; and it would lead, he argues, to.a great promotion of trade and stimulation of the demand made by every part of tho Empire on every other part.