EMPIRE POLICY

Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1934, Page 3

EMPIRE POLICY

BRITISH POLITICIAN’S VIEWS. The necessity for a far-sighted Biiti.sli Imperial policy becomes more and J more obvious with the passage of events, ' K aid Sir Robert Hume, in a review. I The,, nrost significant tendency to be j found in the practices of nations toj day is the attempt on tiie part of nearly every country to 'become as'-self-sufficient possible -and a,s 1 it.tle de- , pendent as can be contrived' on the commodities of other peoples. The use of tariffs to check the import of the products «of external, naI tions and encourage domestic output is not a. irove.l portent in, international commerce ; but -a new and power- | ful insulating factor h’ s appeared in recent times in. the .shape of exchange j restrictions caused by monetary cul.tics of a kind hitherto little known. OBSTRUCTING, FLOW OF TRADE. .. In the effort to -safeguard their -cur. 1 /rencies, many countries have ;been forced to place embargoes against ’’their neighbours’ goods of so great a strinI trolley a-s definitely to tract the flow Of trade 'between tho. nations. 1 The | result has been to reduce the- volume ,of world commerce since 1929 by onehalf in terms of sterling and by nearly two-thirds in terms of gold, j in such a situation whit would be the prospect for ‘Great Britain if re- | ga-rded jas ia /unit by (itself? The structure of our. present civilisation was built up upon, the footing that we could always draw food and raw material from- 'other. lands and sell our 'Manufactures (throughout the world. On thi s system we developed a population fa-r m excess of. what could be sustained upon the products of our owri soil and dependent upon the assumption that other peoples would, lv content to let u s perform their maim ; factoring for them. I During the present century that 'assumption has been wearing thinner and thinner; other countries have increasingly expanded their own factor i6s and used the device of tariffs to help their domestic production. THE FUTURE. , It is. no exaggeration to • say that but for the more friendly attitude of "'the British Dominions Olorn eh the .distresses -which have come upon Us in this .period of contraction ; and depression would have , been- greatly in- ’ tensified. I -Looking into the it muse, .bo apparent to all reflective, minds ffbatj on thq basis of present world tendi encies, Gri’eat Britain as.. a unit by herself' lis greatly over-populated -ap-t -has no means by which she can ensure a livelihood to lier overgrown industrial communities. She can only hope to : do so 'by ..co-operation .with' —her .Dominions and. Colonies. And, indeed, taking a .longer view,_ it would seem that the. future must, witness a redistribution -of the, population .of the Empire which will absorb into the overseas Cohrmonwealth large, numbe'.s '" ho at present carry on, their a vac ;- tions here; and leave, in those inlands a populace much .more appropriate to the area and sustained power of the I land we occupy. . , . OTTAWA RESULTS., Turning tlj the more [lmmediate I problem—that of tlie trade which ,weii may hope to establish• -and encourage' novv—we can congratulate ourselves J that a beginning w-as made at Ottawa . two year’s ago in setting up arrang-e- ---| merits by (.whic-h mutual -advantages j wlt je , given by the 'Mother ..’Country ' and the Dominions to each other. Attempts are frequently made to depreciate these benefits. The results . criticised ds if they Ale-presented a [finished work instead of a beginning.' We can only succeed gradually in so v-ast a matter, and it would Ibe foolish to ignore the, fact that certain -clashes are inevitable and certain adjustments essential. The. necessity to I resuscitate our'own agriculture, even! [ at the expense of limiting dUf import, of -Dominion products, is inescapable. We -can only reconcile contesting •claims on one basis, to be .applied both by C’caf Britain and' The’Dominions—first preference to the domestic pro-, ducor and second preference to -the other parts of the Empire, leaving the foreigner to the last. And let it be said at once- that the Ottawa agreements, however short the distance they go, have h-ad an appreciable. success. In a world of shrinking international trade, - interImperial trade has stemmed the tide. Taking -our exports .°s ta whole the statistics for 1933 show that the proportion taken (by our Dominions w'as 19.92 per cent., as against 17.82 per, cent, in 1931 when the Ottawa agreements were made.

The other side of the picture, disj closes the fact that we, on our -part, imported from the Dominions in 1933 j .21.84 ,per .cent, of our imports, as contrasted with 15.15 per cent, in 1931, so that Ottawa represents a gain all round. Jt is no answer to these figures to give individual, instances to ! show that in some c'ses there was a diminution in the volume, of purchases (of dentaln Dominions between 1931 and 1933. The whole trade of the v'orld was declining during that period. The significant thing is that the proportion between the 'Mother Country and the Dominions increased. This is a feature to W emphasised, encouraged, and developed. Not only do wo find in the other Brutish, communities a more friendly spirit to us and our trade, but, as they depend, in the main, on the .output of primary products, they are not so competitive with us as the older manufacturing' (Jountvies. They '.afford, therefore, a readier market for our manufactures. 'Moreover, it is in their more spacious areas, when times again .improve, that the British race must hop'd to find an outlet in. which to expand-