THE H.B. TRIBUNE SATURDAY. AUGUST 27, 1927 “BUY BRITISH”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 217, 27 August 1927, Page 6

THE H.B. TRIBUNE SATURDAY. AUGUST 27, 1927 “BUY BRITISH”

IN one of our cable messages to- -*■ day the latest issue of the Trade Supplement of the London "Times is quoted as follows: "It is time an educative campaign began in the dominions to show to their citizens that Empire trade is not one-sided. While access to British markets under most advantageous conditions is valuable, there is no justification for the belief, commonly held in the dominions, that Britain is making no return for preferential treatment, and the sooner the position is recognised the better."

It is perhaps not quite fair that the big London daily should thus assume that no such educative process as it mentions has already been in progress—at any rate as far as this little dominion is concerned. Here, and we think the same may be said of Australia, not only the Press but commercial organisations also have been doing a very great deal in an endeavour to promote the interests of British manufacturers and, through them, of Britain’s vast industrial population. Apart altogether from the tariff preferences which our Government has conferred on the products of British industry, there is, we believe, and largely as a result of these efforts, a continually growing and conscious disposition among the people to accord voluntary preference to goods and commodities of British origin as against those from foreign countries. In the face of competition from countries which, from various causes, principally lower wages and lower taxation, can afford to undersell the British producer the encouragement of this disposition is not altogether an easy task. Despite this, however, there can be little doubt but that the spread is going on. even if slowly on account of the difficult financial times through which we ourselves are passing. That does not, however, mean that the thinking members of the community should in any way relax their endeavours to bring about an increase in the proportion of our imports from Great. Britain as compared with

those from other sources- As things stand, using the latesi statistical figures available at the moment, these show that for the last twenty years or so Great Britain has been steadily taking from us a share of our exports that has varied from 80 to 86 per cent, of the whole. This of course, excludes the war years, when the Motherland took everything we could possibly send her, and that at highly remunerative prices, for which the British community is still being heavily taxed. On the other hand, during the same period the proportion of our imports assignable to the Old Country has dropped from 60 to 52 per cent, of the whole. Incidentally, it is noteworthy that this decrease has to be set off against an almost exactly corresponding increase in the percentage of our total imports that is derived from the United States of America—a country which takes all possible measures, by high tariffs and otherwise, to exclude our products from its markets, and which during the war exerted every eqort to “jump" the Old Country’s claim.

It may be said that so far as our exports are concerned Great Britain can scarcely do without them. That may, though only in a measure, be true for the present, but at the same time it is not a proposition upon which we can count, for there are indications all around us of com petitive developments that decidedly menace our position away in this remote comer of the world. There is therefore every practical and selfish reason, if such were needed, why we should, to the greatest extent pos sible, foster a sentiment for mutual support in trade. It is quite out of the question that the Old Country, with her many millions to feed, should extend to our primary products anything in the nature of preferential duties such as are accorded to her from this end. But those who have regular or frequent access to English newspapers cannot but realise how much is being done, in ways involving considerable cost, not only by the Government,. but by many and various private British organisations also, to instil into the minds of consumers the mutual advantages to be gained by purchasing as widely as possible among the products of the Empire. This good work is most undoubtedly hearing good fruit for us, and it is most certainly "up to us” to respond in every practicable way.

What the British Government is doing in the direction indicated may be instanced by the expenditure of a million sterling a year - again supplied by the sorely tried British taxpayers — through the Empire Marketing Board, which it has set up and which lias recently issued its first annual report. This Board, which the "Times” describes as “the executive organ of the Imperial Economic Committee,” keeps in view “the ideal of the economic unity of the Empire," and the financial re sources thus afforded it are expended in promoting intro-imperial trade. In the benefits of this expenditure the Old Country and the oversea dominions are sharing equally, and every care- is taken to show that what, is being done will work for the general' welfare- The question has been asked why the British taxpayer should, in these difficult times, find n million a year for expenditure in directions which mny actually prejudice the British producer. To this a double answer is given. Firstly, the sum is the payment of a debt of honour representing preferences ivhich were promised during the Imperial Conference of 1923, but ivhich later events made it impossible to grant. Secondly, the British producer cannot be pi'ejudicin Ily affected, because there is ample room within the Empire for the expansion of both home and colonial products at the expense of those from foreign countries. What is aimed at is to secure the widest possible exchange of those products among the many countries and dependencies that go to make up the Efnpire. It is for us to do our part here in helping to forward the scheme.