The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 25, 1927. WHERE TO BUY.

Evening Star, Issue 19617, 25 July 1927, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 25, 1927. WHERE TO BUY.

“ Thev are trained to the last man to capture every potential overseas" customer.” This sentence occurred in an address' hy Mr Ormsby-Gorc, Undersecretary of State for the Colonies, to the Advertising Convention in England last week. ’ Most probably Mr OrmsbyGoro had America and Germany particularly in mind when urging the duty to contest outside competition in Empire trade. The need for more wholehearted effort is becoming more obvious every day. America has been able to secure a foothold in various foreign markets as a result of the enormous capital resources she has acquired in consequence of the war. Money must be invested to develop export markets,and that money can only bo available as the result of a favorable trade balance. That is where Britain is handicapped in competing for trade within her own Empire. Last year there was no balance available for investment abroad, and the trade figures for the first half of this year again show a deficit. The course of British trade has been epitomised by Sir Philip Cun-liffe-Lister, President of the Board of Trade, who gave the House of Commons some startling figures last month. Taking 1913 as the basic year, and reducing the returns to a common standard of value figures, the imports were: 1913, 100; 1924, 105.4; 1925, 117.9; and 1926, 129.2. On the same basis the export figures were:—l9l3, 100; 1924, 75.3; 1925, 76.8; and 1926, 71.7 Imports steadily increased while exports decreased. This movement dries up tlie fund needed to develop the markets by means of which alone there can be a recovery in the value of exports, the situation, therefore, has its alarming aspect, for it has in it one factor making for continued retrogression. On top of this has come the European Powers’ policy of high protective tariffs and embargoes on importation, making the outlook still more dismal. At present appeals to sentiment and the use of publicity methods are being relied on to make up for the lack of money to compete with other nations. From' that aspect the recent visit of the British motor car delegation and the forthcoming tour of Mr Amery, Secretary of State for the Overseas Dominions, may be regarded. “ Buy from those who buy from you ” is a phrase which, though it has, perhaps,Jong been coined, is being put increasingly into circulation. At the last annual coufeienco of tho New South M ales Graziers Association a motion in the lolloping terms was carried unanimously This conference requests the h ederal Govci nment to place retaliatory duties on the products of those foreign countries tho imports from which outweigh the exports from the Commonwealth to them, and that such duties be so designed as to balance our trade with them; also that wheat and wool growers bo urged to buy goods of British manufactuie in preference to those of foreign countries whose trade does not balance with ours.” Tho mover said the general tariff should bo taken as a base, and against all nations whose balance of imports exceeded Australian exports to them duties should bo imposed to such an extent that imports would bo cut back to balance export*.

It is somewhat surprising, and not a little encouraging, to learn that outside the Empire a similar feeling has disclosed itself. In the Argentine the phrase “ Buy from those who buy from you ” has been taken up by the inhabitants. Britain is the principal buyer of most Argentine products. In 1920 British imports from the Argentine were valued at £67,500,000, while exports thither from Britain were valued at only £23,000,000, so that the balance of trade is extraordinarily favorable to the Argentine. If the people of that country are beginning to recognise the importance of redressing this balance by obtaining more of their requirements from the country which buys so largely from themselves, there is good cause for satisfaction. But something more than mere sentiment is required, and the deficiency seems to be supplied by the scheme propounded by the New South Wales graziers. r lhe automatic cutting off of imports from a country when their value exceeds those which that country' accepts in return should at least have the effect of causing that country to lower its tariff -walls where they are, as is notoriously the case in one instance, virtually prohibitive, so that trade may be conducted on something approaching equitable terms. Hitherto Britain has been scrupulous to the point of self-injury in her open door policy. As Sir Philip Cunlift'cLister pointed out after the Geneva Economic Conference, Britain’s ports are free to all the world, and the British tariff is the least protective in the world. Doubts about her being able to continue this policy are growing. After a visit to the Continent Sir Alfred Jlond informed the House of Commons last month that in consequence of the overwhelming prosperity of the United States the idea of the necessity of forming an economic union of Europe to preserve European industry has made great headway. Britain’s position as an economic unit between the United States of America and an economic unit of Europe would be precarious, and her only alternative to merging in the European unit is to organise the British Empire as an economic whole. Sir Alfred Mond declares that at the present time no organisation exists which even attempts to co-ordinate the manifold resources, of the different

parts of the' Empire systematically to bring them into closer contact among Empire producers and consumers, to utilise the best volume of trade, and to obtain for members of tho Empire any advantages in the commercial treaties of tho world. Jn fact, thcro is no united front whatsoever, in theory or practice, and there is a grave danger of eacli unit obtaining not a maximum, but a minimum, benefit, cither from its resources or efforts.