WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 February 1932, Page 8

WELLINGTON NEWS

THE OTTAWA CONFERENCE. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, February 25. 111 the course of three or four" months two very important conferences are to be held, one at Lausanne to deal with reparations .and war debt s and at Ottawa to deal with Empire trade aiid 'Dominion tariffs. It cannot be too often repeated that .reparations, war debts and tariffs are the fundamental causes of the world’s crise?, ana of these, the most obduiate and greatest obstacle [is the tariff war. To the Empire the Ottawa Conference is of supreme importance, and the occasion offers the most brilliant opportunity of legitimate expansion of .trade within the Empire, but the. problem that confronts us is whether Dominion politicians will rise to the occasion, or whether they will shape their policies and base their arguments on narrow lines. The British Government is in process of making a gesture extremely favourable to the overseas Dominions, which are given a decided measure of preference for they are exempt from the 10 per- cent, tax which is being imposed on practically all foreign imports.

In the course, of a recent debate in the Mouse of Commons, Air J. H. Thomas, the Secretary of State for the Domipiqns, said that the proposed preferences' in the Tariff Bill were the first necessary step to increased trade. Re wanted lo make it clear that Britain was giving preference with a deliberate intention of creating the necessary atmosphere for success at (ij.-awa. The Government 'would not be unmindful of Britain’s interests nor her duty towards foreign trade. The Jo minions had made it plain that their policy was their own Dominions 'first. We could not complain, but we | are entitled to tell them at Ottawa it is no good talking about preference when the duties are so high that nobody can climb over them. That is the sting in the preferences of the Dominions. It is normally preference, but practically it is prohibition of interEmpire trade. Will the politicians from the overseas Dominions who attend the Ottawa .Conference be able to visualise the Empire, or wijl .they suffer from myopia and see only the needs and benefits of their respective Dominions? It is perhaps too much to expect them to take the wider •view involved in the word “Empire,” and it is the greatest and most glorious Empire the world has ever known. The United States ha s built more solidly than the British. There are no tariff ! walls within the l United States and the domestic trade of that country is on an' immense scale. Politicians in the Overseas Dominions set great store on protecting local industries, and with that they mix up the standard of living. Protection in its earlier stages was deemed neqe.ssary to. protect the infant industries while they ■wiere growing up, and .viewed in this light there is much justification for high protection, but industry itself has treated the high tariff in the nature of I, a dole, and just, as the dole demoralises an individual, so it .fees an industry. The woollen industry in the Dominion lias been protected lor about fifty years, and yet those interested in the industry will avert that more protection is needed to maintain the /-standard of living. When more protection is given; workers rightly claim higher wages, and more -protection becomes, necessary to maintain this higher standard of living, a case of the dog chasing its tail. The doles paid to. industry .through the tariff are many times greater than the dole to the unemployed n.nd we are not getting value ' from either dole.

Many people fondly hope that many benefits will be derived from the Ottawa (Conference, but it is a question whether their optimism is justified. Long years of high protection have created, vested 'interests which the politicians of the Dominion have neither the power nor the inclination to oppose. We anticipate ttfhat the Ottawa Conference will let loose a flood of meaningless platitudes, and the sum total of good will be easily contained in a thimble. 'lthe present crisis must cause a great deal more harm before the Dominions come to a full realisation of the benefits of Empire trade.