EMPIRE COUNTRIES

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 9

EMPIRE COUNTRIES

BRITAIN'S COLONIAL POLICY LORD BUXTON'S CRITICISM Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 37. In the House of Lords, Lord Buxton, stating that “if we kept the colonies as a closed preserve we were heading for war,” moved that Britain, owing to the dangers of a policy of exclusion, should consult the dominions and colonies with a view to applying the mandate system in suitable cases, said that Britain must recognise that the need for markets was an important part of the German claim. There were about 25 chief commodities of which the Empire possessed 18. German industry and science were needed in Africa. Lord Arnold said that the colonial policy was open to the greatest possible objection. The historian of the future might well record that the Ottawa agreements were the beginning of the end of the Empire. They were a clear breach of the mandated system. Lord Buxton withdrew his motion. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT NOT A MENACE TO HOME INDUSTRIES. LONDON, February 17. Mr Euan Wallace, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, at the banquet of the Royal Warrant Holders’ Association, said: “We should regard the industrial development of Empire countries as a welcome step forward, not a menace to home industries. The Empire overseas remains the chief producer of food and raw materials, to which end the principal factor is prosperity, in which Britain may hope and expect to share in due course consequent on the improvement of the economic situation of the dominions. The primary producers of the Empire -will appreciate how much they owe to the industrial activities of the United Kingdom.” The Ottawa agreements had strengthened the links of empire, at which it was unwise to scoff. It was fortunate that we were able to secure an area in which there was no fear of new impediments to trade and a continuance of economic policies based on the general welfare of the Empire. MR NASH'S ANNOUNCEMENT LONDON, February 18. (Received February IS), at 10 a.m.) Responding to a toast at the Imperial Trade Warrant Holders’ dinner, Mr Nash disclosed that he had signed a contract on behalf of New Zealand producers with British shipping companies to which £4,000,000 would be paid on account of New Zealand’s trade. Such arrangements depended, on reciprocity and co-operation in the fullest sense. AGREEMENT EXPLAINED LONDON February 18. (Received February 19, at 11 a.m.) Elaborating Mr Nash’s statement on the trade agreement, the New Zealand Office informed the Australian Associated Press that Mr Nash had signed a contract for three years at a 2J per jeent. increase in freight rates. It is estimated that £3,600,000 per annum is involved on a tonnage basis for the transport of refrigerated foodstuffs in British ships. This is apart from freight payments on wool and other non-refrigerable cargoes. Mr Nash emphasised that in the period 1932-36 the four dominions increased the value of their purchases from Britain by £47,000,000, while the increase for the whole north of Europe was only £17,000,000. Mr Nash visited the Ariel works at Birmingham, where he was originally an office boy, and rose to be chief of the costing department. He talked with old employees and was later a guest at the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce at a private dinner. THE MANDATORY SYSTEM EXTENSION NO BENEFIT TO GERMANY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 18. (Received February 19, at noon.) The question of extension of the mandate system was debated in the House of Lords on a motion by Lord Noel Buxton calling upon the Government to consult the Governments of the dominions and other colonial Powers with a view to the application of the mandate system in suitable cases to British and other colonies, and as to revision of the Convention of St. Germain in such a way as to extend its operation. The motion was withdrawn after a statement on behalf of the Government by Lord Plymouth, who said that any proposal actually to abandon full sovereignty in favour of mandatory status must present many difficulties in territories whose inhabitants were just as much British subjects as he was. He added: “I can say with confidence that any proxiosal to alter their status in any way will be very' strongly resented indeed in our African colonies.” The British Government would experience great difficulty in getting the dominion Governments and foreign Governments to accept the proposals contained in the motion, and they could not even invite other Governments to consider such proposals, unless they themselves were convinced that they could be both useful and practical. It was clear from the public pronouncements of German statesmen and the German Press that there was in Germany no particular desire .to see the principle

of equal access extended throughout the world. What they might be assumed to want on the economic side was some arrangement by which some colonial territory might be included within the Gorman currency area, and the area of German exchange restrictions. In the face of those restrictions the open door would become entirely meaningless. It was quite wrong to assume that Germany could not export goods to the British Empire. Our colonial Empire was a very important customer to Germany, and a very important supplier to her ol raw materials of all sorts, and Germany would not be likely to benefit very greatly from any abolition ol Imperial preference or modification ol the colonial quota system.