EXPORTS TO BRITAIN

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 6

EXPORTS TO BRITAIN

Dominions and the Quota GOVERNOR’S OPTIMISTIC VIEW Britain’s Recent Economic Policy NO THREAT TO DOMINION’S WELFARE. (By Telegraph—Fresa -.ssocution.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 29. Speaking at the annual dinner of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce tonight his Excellency the GovernorGeneral made some interesting comment on what he designated as “the widely circulated fallacy that Britain is aiming at being self-contained in her food supply with consequent bankruptcy to this Dominion and its primary producers.” “I find it difficult to justify the term over-prod'uctioii as applied to primary products, when at least half the population of the world are underfed and underclothed,” said Lord Bledisloe. ‘‘Economics are unfortunately in these days so closely intertwined with politics that I hesitate to speak of the problem in terms of any particular commodity. But at least I should like, with a lifelong acquaintance with British agriculture and British markets, to remove some current- misapprehensions. The first is the likelihood, under normal conditions (apart entirely from any question of Imperial preference) of non-absorption by the British market at a remunerative price of high grade New Zealand output, such, for instance, as the best of your Canterbury lamb or of your dairy produce. This Dominion lias but little to fear so long as she takes due care, as her Export Boards- axe striving to do that her primary exports shall not be aggregated - with the relatively inferior products of other competing countries and that they shall be of uniformly high quality and of the exact description that British consumers require. If, for instance, British housewives seek In the shops of the Homeland small joints of butcher’s meat from early matured animals, chilled beef in preference to- frozen beef, lean rather than fat bacon, easily spread full-flavoured butter, cheese free from holes or discolouration or apples of a certain size or variety, try, with the help of the scientists, to satisfy their fastidious tastes even if you. do not -share them. If you do, Britain’s market door will be flung as wide open xo you as ever before. NO THREAT TO DOMINION.

“This leads me to mention anotnei widely circulated' fallacy induced by certain features of Britain’s recent economic policy, viz., that she is aiming at being self-contained in her foou supply, with consequent bankruptcy to this Dominion and its primary producers. Such a supposition would be deemed farcical in Britain. Her deep anxiety at present is lest her farmers may be ruined by temporary lack of absorptive capacity through want ol purchasing power on the part of her greatly depressed urban proletariat. Ignorance, moreover, sometimes curtails- the due consumption of essential foods. Take milk, for instance. There would be no talk of a quota being imfiosed on imported milk products, at east on those of good quality, if the average Briton drank the full quota of liquid milk deemed essential to- physical well-being. But as long as he •drinks per head -of population half that of the American one-third that of the Scandinavian, and one-fourth that of the Swiss, saturation point is reached at an abnormally early stage! The physical decadence of the British Nation is in no small measure due to malnutrition through wholly inadequate consumption by the children of the poor of Nature’s most complete food and most effective diseaseresister —milk. Similarly inimical to human well-being is the attempted supersession in a cold damp climate of woollen clothing by inferior substitutes. “But quite apart from these limitations of commodity absorption arising from ignorance, prejudice, or transient fashion, there is no occasion whatever for alarm. Under normal conditions Britain supplies to her immense and growing population from her own farm area (which is ever shrinking with the encroachment of her cities) 17 per cent, of her bread-stuffs, 43 per cent, of her butcher’s meat, 10 per cent of her butter 21 per cent, of her cheese, 73 per cent, of her poultry, 65 S)cr cent, of her eggs (which, although arge still leaves 2,400,000,000 to be provided from outside), 14 per cent, of her bacon and hams and 17 per cent, of her fresh fruit. DOMINION CAN HELP.

“Given reasonable preference over foreign supplies and reasonable protection against the products of sweated labour, there is -surely ample scope for this Dominion, in providing her due share of the balance, on the recovery of Britain’s industrial prosperity and purchasing capacity, to secure a good livelihood for all her more enlightened and business-like farmers. Reciprocal trading with the Old Land will render her continued custom all the more certain and secure.

“Another misconception akin to the last, is that Britain ip the supply of her food requirements, is, in spite of the Ottawa Agreements, inclined to favour foreign countries at the expense of the Dominions. This is the reverse of the truth as all her new trade agreements, if carefully scrutinised, will abundantly demonstrate. But a little patience is needed for the full development of her revised trade programme. Britain, with her immense overseas trade connections in many foreign countries, cannot by a stroke of the pen entirely deflect the current of her international commodity exchange without bringing disaster upon her whole industrial fabric especially if the Dominions are unable for a time to augment their custom with her to the extent that she may lose it in other directions. This difficuly is well illustrated by the fact that the amount of British capital invested in Argentina is estimated at £6b0.000.000, compared with £520.000,000 in Canada, £494,000,000 in Australia, £224,000,000 in South Africa, and £123,000.000 in Now Zealand. The silken cord of Imperial sentiment is drawing ever closer together the traders of the British Empire, as official statistics clearly show. To T>ut too great and sudden a- strain upon it is to run the risk of snapping it altogether. It is asserted in Holy Writ that “Where your treasure is there will your heart he also,” and no one can denv that in a conflict (whether individual or national) between sentiment and self-interest, and still more between sentiment and solvencv, sentiment is unlikelv to prevail. But the identity of location of heart and treasure is surely a laudable objective, although it he slow in its realisation—an objective whose motto would he “Where your heart is Imperially, there your treasure should he peroetuallv augmented,’’ without appreciable detriment to existing and profitable commercial attachments.”