IMPERIAL RESOURCES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4832, 9 April 1936, Page 5

IMPERIAL RESOURCES

STAY-AT-HOME POLICY. LORD BLEDISLOE'S CfRiTICISM. London, March 14. Lord Bledisloe was the principal speaker at a dinner of the Cheltenham Chamber of Commerce. England's Imperialism, he said, was not lacking in vocal fervour, but, for the world's greatest Empire, it appeared strangely deficient in the vision and knowledge such as alone mare for constructive statesmanship. England had the well-earned reputation of facing any great crisis or emergency better than any other country in the world and, in the absence of due preparation, of "muddling through" somehow. Her lack of vision, her self-centredness, and her inadequate knowledge of the outside world and its aims and ambitions, however, made the process extremely costly and impeded _ her continuity of progress as a richly equipped and unconquerable Empire p ower —commercially as well as physically. No one who had spent five years as he had done on the other side of the world could fail to be struck with Britain's wisdom in the realm of international finance, and her amazing stability and recuperative power in a mad world of short-sighted economic nationalism: On the other hand, the non-utilisation of her vast Imperial resources and the unenterprising-stay-at-home attitude of her population and her capital was amazing. Lord Bledisloe said he could not help contemplating the millions of monetary capital lying idle in the banks, the millions of fertile acres idle in the Empire, and the millions of people remaining idle and impoverished in this crowded country, without wondering whether they could not, by efficient organisation, be profitably united in triune partnership to the advantage of Empire welfare.

"Where to-day is the systematic planning as applied to Empire problems, whether of migrant population or of trade? Where, above all, is the inclination to invest large blocks of British capital, with the prospect of a fair return upon it, in a country of great natural resources as a wise and proper precursor to the employment within its borders of great masses of British workpeople? Foreign capital is already reaping a rich reward in developing New Zealand's mineral wealth while British capital is yielding a paltry II per cent, on deposit in British banks."

The agents of foreign hrms were often keener, better equipped with knowledge and authority, and more ready to study local requirements than' British trade emissaries in the same line of business. If this country meant to retain its share of the world's trade it must realise that the integrity of the British manufacturer or merchant did not fully compensate for lack of business acumen and alert salesmanship which so often characterised foreign competitors.