THE WORLD'S TRADE.

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1921, Page 4

THE WORLD'S TRADE.

SPEECH BY MR LLOYD GEORGE. | J _ I •' WORK WITH BOTH HAKDS. 7 ' LONDON, Dec. 2. As guest of the Federation of British industries, -\lr Lloyd George delivered | thoughtful speech on the subject of ihe world's trade. It wus very import- I ; ni, lie wiid, that- llu- Government should have a body coming to it which spoke on behalf of business as a whole. Labour was getting organised, and he would rather talk to a i organised lab<ur than to labour disorganised. He va-3 glad that the greac business community—those who had the directing brains of industry—were coming together and federating and combining and co-opcrating, and were, he hoped, prepared to give a common counsel to the Government. Referring to the period of depression which he feared was unavoidable, Mr Lloyd George said that before anything could be done to cure or mitigate the condition of things it was necessary to | have a clear indication' of the causes | and a readiness to acknowledge them ! whatever they were. WORLD-WIDE TRADE SLUMP. The first thing we have got to get into our minds is this: The causes are not peculiar to our country. They are something that affects tne whole world. Countries with totally (afferent econo. niie systems are suffering alike —protectionist countries, free-trade countries; countries with good Governments and with, bad Governments. It is raining on the just and on the unjust. (Laughter.) And take the structure of society: Socialist countries are suffering just like these wretched individualists. The working classes are more wretched whore the sua of. . liberty is shining on. them under Lenin and Trotsky than they are in this .be. nighted country, where they are locked up in the dungeons of capitalism. (Laughter and cliecrs.) If you are to j get at what is going to be done let us : get rid of the notion that this is a cause which is limitel or circumscribed by something that happened in this land. Very often we aeem to have forgotten that there has been a war. Has any one taken a piece of paper and reckoned up what it cost, not here, but to the world? It cost over forty thousand millions sterling, and , the damage that has done cannot be repaired by another ten thousand million. There you have fifty, thousand million sterling cf destruction, j and there were ten million young, vigorous lives and ten million of cripples. What need is there to seek beyond that ? POVERTY-STRICKEN CUSTOMERS. -•"What has. happened is that your customers are poverty-stricken. The printing presses may save you for a time, but you cannot t-.lways carry a sack of paper on your backs. That is what is happening in Europe. They cannot get on without it, and they cannot buy, and when they buy they cannot pay. Did you ever see the spectacle of a man in rags, down at heel, standing in front of a shop.window looking at clothes and boots, all the Latest fashion, and you say: 'Why doesn't he buy? He is on the rocks, he needs them. Why doesn't he buy? Why doesn't he go into the shop ' He cannot pay. Europe stands in front of your shop-window, stocked with the beat goods that any man can turn out. FIRST REMEDY—PEACE. "Europe is in rags and wants clothes; but their pockets are full of paper; they can't' buy; and until your customer is in a condition to trade with you we shall have difliculties. Do not let us work up pretended causes of this slump; keep to realities. Europe, Britain, the world, has got to work its way back to a full purse—(Cheers) — and until it does it nothing that Governments can do ,nothing that federations can do, and, Heaven knows, nothing that newspaper articles can do, will be of any use. No Bolshevik paper money will ever help U3 through to the solution of the problem, and that is the first thing. The first remedy is peace. Europe cannot work its way back to prosperity unless it has peace. There is a great story of reconstruction in a great old Book, of men who reconstructed a broken city with trowel in one hand and sword in the other. It was not very quick work. It was worse than working under trade union regulation. (Laughter.) Europe, to get back, must work with both hands. She cannot handle swords and trowels. The whole energy of business men, of workmen, of statesmen, ought to be concen. trated on this task of working up the impoverished purse of mankind. Don't stand those men who are constantly blowing up the ember? of the fire; stamp out the men whe ure going about with petrol tins in order to start fresh fires in the world. They are a curse, whatever their profession, and it is not confined to Bolsheviks or Sinn Feiners. Leave the industries, in .so far as is possible, to work out their own salvation. In tho main our policy is that the less interference with trade there is on the part of the Government the better it is for trade and the better it is for the Government'. THE NATION MUST FOLLOW. "As the Cabinet has appointed a committee to cu£ down expenditure, I suggest there should bo a committee in every household to cut down expenditure. I know what will happen. (A voice: 'Divorce!') Each member of the family will want to cut the expenses of the other. The ladies will cut down the cigar bil 1 , and the men will cut down tho dress bill. (Laughter.) That is what happens in the public expenditure, but it is essential, if the nation is to recover, that there should be rigid, ruthless economy for some time to come." i