OVERSEAS MARKETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 February 1937, Page 7

OVERSEAS MARKETS

GERMAN COLONIES’ CLAIM LABOUR PEERS’ SPEECHES [BY CABLE—PREPS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] LONDON. February IS. In the House of Lords, Lord NoelBuxton, saying that if Britain kepi her colonics as a. closed preserve she was heading for war. moved that Britain, because of the dangers of a policy of exclusion, should consult the Dominions and colonies with a view to applying the' mandate system in suitable cases. He- said that Britain must recognise the need for markets had an important. part in the German colonial clain/s. There were about 25 chief commodities, of which the Empire possessed 18. German industry and science were needed in Africa. Lord Arnold said that Britainl’s 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 mandate system.

Lord Noel-Buxton withdrew 'his motion.

“OPEN DOOR” AVAILABLE. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, February 18. The question of the extension of the mandate system was debated in the 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 to a revision of the Convention of St. Germain, in such a way as to extend its operation. The motion was withdrawn, after a statement was made on behalf of the Government by Lord Plymouth, who said that any proposal actually to abandon full sovereignty in favour of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 proposal to alter their status in any way would 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 would 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 German 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 of raw materials of all j:orts, and Germany would not. be likely io bon’ofit very greatlj r from any abolition of Imperial preference, or modification of the colonial quota system.

OVERSEAS INDUSTRIES. LONDON, February 18. Captain 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 as a menace to homo industries. The Empire overseas remains the chief producer of food and raw materials, to "which end the principal factor is prosperity. Britain may expect her share in due course through the improvement oi the economic situation in the Dominions. Primary producers of. the Empire will appreciate' how much they owe to the industrial activities of the United Kingdom. The Ottawa agreements have strengthened the links of Empire at which it is unwise to scoff. It. is fortunate that we are able to secure an area in which there is no fear of new impediments to trade and a continuance of economic policies based on the general welfare of the Empire.”