COST OF A TRADE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 155, 29 December 1936, Page 6

COST OF A TRADE WAR

Fortunately, it seems, die JapaneseAustralian trade dispute can be talked of in the past tense; but, as a warning for the future, some note may be taken of its enormous effect on the wool trade in the September quarter of this year. Comparing the months of July, August, and September with those of last year* the Commonwealth Statistician finds that Japan purchased £15,303 worthy of greasy wool from Australia, against £1,697,244 worth last year. Prior to the quarrel, Mr. (now Judge) Latham made a lengthy good-will tour of the East, including Japan. Japan also sent a good-will missioner to southern lands. But it required,that the wrestlers should enter the trade-ring and test their strength—at the cost of over a million and, a half (*f lost wool export in one quarter—before a compromise could be arrived at. The moral to be drawn is not a comforting one, unless comfort lies in the fact that the dispute might even have lasted longer and cost more. It might have lasted as long as1 the potato-orange war. If trade wars assumed Marathon there might presently be no trade to war about, because the chance of resuscitating a slain commerce bears little or no relation to the merits of the original dispute. Perhaps good-will missions will be viewed with more concern if it is realised that good will costs only travelling expenses but an embargo policy can destroy millions' worth of trade in a few weeks.