TO AVOID DISRUPTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 May 1930, Page 14

TO AVOID DISRUPTION

EMPIRE ECONOMIC POLICY

i The conclusion that..economic unity. ! must be achieved by the. British/Empire if"it is, to avoid'disruption. ; wasjdec)ared by Lord Melchett in an address ih;;Lon-7 don on his- return froni -a visit, to South' Africa. On the': general subject of .tariffs,-. he said he could imagine /nothing'\nwr6 foolish than for people in Britain to tie , their hands behind their '. .back's .before, they entered the conference".'roota.:V3niey., announced to the whole- World their helplessness and incapacity in making a trade agreement when.they had no idea of the benefit they might derive from: having those weapons in. their hands. To lay down prohibitions "of that kind, beforehand was to' strike "at the root of. that necessarily difficult but possible problem of the mutually.satisfactory: re-, lations of Great Britain- and the Dbmin-. ions and of the Dominions among theniselves, which it was necessary to solve if, the Empire was to remain in existence at all. Nothing made him more angry than the statement that the Dominions would do nothng for them. What a- libel! The Dominions had already done, very much for them and he had never- met a responsible member of the Dominions who was not prepared to do a. great, deal more. . No one imagined that, all the tariff walls of the Dominions would fall at the blast of a trumpet. '■ What '.they wanted-, was • the freest; interchange "of • commodities between 1 Great- Britain and the Dominions; It was a question of the future existence, of '■■the,', greatest Empire the world -had seen;, or was- ever ;| likely, to see, yet he saw : weak-kneed people judging this great question on: the elec-j toral balance. On the o/ie hand was the ' great economic complex of: the United States, which claimed to be conquering the world; on the other there was bound to arise the economic union of Europe. Where was Great Britain going to stand? Were they to stand with Europe, a detached little island? Was Canada to go to the United States.and possibly Aus r tralia as well?' They could see the disruption of the Empire taking place under their eyes. The world, was moving with enormous velocity economically and poli-' tically. Tlieie \.'as yet time to save t'-.e situation and to create the greatest ?nd most important economic unity the-; world had even seen.