Evening Post. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1938. IS THERE A SPECTRE?

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1938, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1938. IS THERE A SPECTRE?

Action taken by the British Government to regulate the imports of mutton and lamb into Great Britain, and to extend the functions of the Empire Beef Council, follows on the lines of decisions reached at the conference of Empire producers held in Sydney in March and April of this year. It is designed to avoid, by a system of orderly marketing, what has been termed "the cut-throat competition to feed Britain." and its aim will be to stabilise, as far as is possible, supplies and prices. When the matter was first discussed at the producers' conference, delegates representing the Dominions received something of a shock as a result of the picture of the Home market painted by the leader of the British delegation. Sir Reginald DormanSmith, M.P.. a former president of the National Farmers* Union of Great Britain. The shock lay not in Sir Reginald's advocacy of regulated supplies "in order to avert an economic collapse,** but in his references to the ultimate limitation of the absorptive capacity of the British market. Saturation point in the Home market, he said, was much nearer than any imagined. He emphasised that the Dominions, which were now developing secondary industries and thus diminishing their dependence upon the United Kingdom for manufactured goods, could not at the same time expect an everincreasing share of the United Kingdom market for agricultural produce, nor could the Mother Country afford entirely to cut off her agricultural connection with such countri'; as Denmark, Holland, and Argentina. But if the conference opened under the spectre of restriction, later developments eased the situation, and the president of the New Zealand Farmers* Union (Mr. Mulholland), who earlier expressed the view that agreement on voluntary restriction was "out of the question," submitted and had adopted a series of resolutions, 'which, while suggesting regulation, removed the immediate fear of restriction. The appropriate resolutions were: ! That this conference accepts the [need for securing the expansion of Dominion supplies of primary products to the United Kingdom markets so far as is economically possible. That this conference accepts the need for orderly marketing of Empire primary products in order to maintain continuity of supplies and to prevent avoidable gluts and resultant instability of price levels and speculation. After the return of the New Zealand delegation some doubt was cast on the meaning of the words "so far as is economically possible** contained in the first-quoted resolution, but Mr. Mulholland denied that they had any sinister meaning, and said: Actually, the question of whether a larger share of the British market could be given to the Dominions at the expense of foreign producers involved two vital economic considerations: first,- the Dominions' willingness to take British goods in exchange; second, the Dominions' ability to replace the export trade lost to Britain by her limitation of foreign exports. There was nothing sinister but something very real in those two considerations. In spite of the resolutions passed by the conference, Mr. W. J. Poison, M.P., who was also a delegate, returned to New Zealand convinced that there was no escape from the conviction that restriction looms in the future if New Zealand and Australia are to continue developing. Mr. Savage sees in this latest move by Britain a desire to give greater security to the British 'farmer. Will the British farmer be content with the measure of protection which regulation will give him? Will the next step be in the direction of restriction? These are questions which must be left to the future to decide, but they have a significance the implication of which New Zealand and other Empire producers cannot escape. If retention of the Home markets involves the free exchange of goods, is there not a dan-

ger in a policy of insulation which involves import selection? Mr. Savage sees no danger so fai as Britain is concerned, and maintains that the policy which his Government has adopted will not lessen trade between the Dominion and its best customer for primary produce. It is to be hoped that the Prime Minister will not be shown to have been unduly optimistic. But ii Britain is not to be affected by import selection, then it must follow that other countries will be. No coun-

try is likely to be satisfied with one-way trade. Australia at present

is attempting to repair the damage of an earlier policy to her American markets. New Zealand may happily retain her trade with Brifatn, but can she hope to do so with other countries? If she fails, then any benefits that may have been derived from Mr. Nash's trade mission, abroad will he quickly negatived. A Government which aims to trade with the world cannot afford to be arbi-

trarilv selective.