Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1931 BRITAIN’S OPEN MARKET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 25 February 1931, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1931 BRITAIN’S OPEN MARKET

THE emergence of Sir Oswald Mosley s Fourth Party in Britain would not call for comment at this side of the world, if it were not for the fact that tiie policy which lie unfolds appears to contain a proposal which, if acted upon, would closely concern New Zealand and every other Dominion. The manifesto of the new National Socialist Party states, among other things: 1 The creation of a2O years’ plan for the orderly balanced development of the resources of the Empire will be one of the greatest steps towards the conquest of economic security and well-being. With the power of centralised buying in our hands we could give the Dominions an advantage, compelling the rapid development of Empire economic unity, while maintaining relations with countries offering us substantial markets. . .

That would appear to mean that if this new band of Socialists by some strange chance should succeed in seizing the reins of power they would abolish the open market, and would constitute themselves the buyers of produce imported by Great Britain. That is the interpretation which we place on the words, “With the power of centralised buying in our hands we could give the Dominions an advantage etc.” They might give the Dominions an advantage over countries outside the Empii’e, but it would be they who would fix the prices that they would pay under their system of centralised buying. That would mean that exporters of New Zealand produce—wool, mutton, butter, fruit, etc. —would be completely at the mercy of the National Socialists of Britain and Sir Oswald Mosley, and it does not require much imagination to realise that the producers of this country would receive such prices as would give them very little profit. The system would be equally disastrous to other Dominions, and instead of effecting “the orderly balanced development of the resources of the Empire,” would ruin all those parts of it which depend on the British market for the purchase of their products. But we do not think that there is tire slightest chance of the people of Great Britain ever endorsing Sir Oswald Mosley’s socialistic aims. They will perceive that he has borrowed a leaf out of the Soviet Government’s book of Communistic precepts, and that hut for Stalin’s Five-Year Plan (under which the Moscow Government is the sole buyer of Russia's imports and the seller of its exports) Sir Oswald Mosley’s extraordinary “20-years’ plan for the orderly .balanced development of the Empire” would never have been heard of. The average, sane, and level-headed British elector will not wish to exchange the price-levelling effect of competition in the open market for the hazardous experiment of placing the fixing of prices in the hands of a body of politicians whose knowledge of economics is negative. The proposals of Sir Oswald Mosley and his friends are hardly likely to turn the heads of the British electorate, hut they will certainly weaken the British Labour Government, both in the Commons and in the country. Indeed, Mr MacDonald’s position becomes more difficult every week. Not only is he pestered by his Left Wing, 'the Independent Labour Party led by Mr Maxton, not only does lie, suffer the defection of Sir Oswald Mosley and his friends, but he sees Mr Churchill, Mr Lloyd George, arid Sir R. Horne preparing to denounce his Indian policy, at a mass meeting which is to be held in the Albert Hall. We do not think the British Fourth Party will be a serious factor in itself. Just as Lord Beaverbrook’s spectacular proposals for “free trade within the Empire” met with only a limited response, so Sir Oswald Mosley’s proposals for abolishing the open market are likely to be substantially rejected. They will certainly be resented in the Dominions, if they prove at all what they appear to he in the cabled precis of Sir Oswald Mosley’s manifesto. And just as the Dominions’ Premiers upset Lord Beaverbrook’s programme, when they met recently at the Imperial Conference, it is likely that the adverse opinion of the Dominions will give the quietus to the dangerous suggestion that Britain’s open market should he abolished.