MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1934 TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 9 April 1934, Page 4

MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1934 TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE

IT was no coincidence that almost simultaneously, last week, Mr Bernard Shaw, in New Zealand, and the ‘‘Yorkshire Observer,” in England, expressed dissatisfaction with the trade relationships between the Dominions and Great Britain. Mr Shaw, referring to the Ottawa agreements, represented the Dominions’ delegates as hard bargainers and the British delegates as pained and shocked by being “booted and battered all round the place, and sent home quite upset.” Our outspoken visitor said a number of other things quite as unflattering to the Dominions, such as The British Isles never think . about you. They can’t conceive any colonial bothers about Britain except for what ho can get out of it.” So it would seem that the Ottawa Conference pro--1 duced something more than trado agree- > ments: it has created in some quarters 1 in England a revulsion of feeling against the Dominions, since the “Yorkshire * Observer” has gone as far as to state that, “It is curious that Conservative Imperialists are returning to Disraeli’s , idea that the colonies” —now the Dominions—“are a millstone round the neck of the Mother country.” When the New Zealand interviewer pointed out to Mr Shaw that there is sornei thing more than a trade relationship between the Dominions and Great Britain, and that the Dominions assisted in the Great War, the eminent author and playwright retorted by saying, “You went into it out of pure devilment. You need not have sent these men unless you had liked. You could have joined the Germans if you had liked.” So it would seem that the Dominions went to war, in the fateful years 1914-18, in a frivolous spirit—in Mr Sh.uv's opinion—and sent delegates to the Ottawa Conference for the express purpose of “besting” the Old Country. The expression of such opinions may be in keeping with the Shavian traditions of saying a thing because it is striking, rather than because it is strictly in accordance with facts t ; but in reality it displays in the speaker an ignorance of the magnitude of the Dominions’ effort in the Great War, and a callous disregard ij> f their losses in that stupendous struggle; while in relation to the Ottawa Con femme Mr Shaw would ask the world to believe that the British delegates were a set of semi-imbeciles who were tricked by a set of “sharpers.” Blit what are the facts? The dclibera'ions at Ottawa were merely preliminary. ’I lie agreements, signed there, had ail to lie endorsed by the several Parliaments of the various countries con.erned. J'lm British delegates returned home with a sheaf of such agreements, all ni which had to he submitted to the British Parliament for endorsement, and that they were endorsed and ratified is suflicient answer to Mr Shaw's indictment. Both Mr Shaw and the “Yorkshire Observer” recognise, the fact that the Dominions ami Great Britain are hound together' in an eeonomio sense, and are largely interdependent, the English journal saying, “If we seriously hamper , i the Dominions’ farming, repercussions j will nflecl, (mormons British investments in the Dominions, who also will not ; (oiitimielo welcome British nmnufiic- 1 1 laetm'ers. In other words, the British 1 market is essential to the Dominions, J mid the Dominions’- markets are esseit- ( l.ial to Great Britain. That being so, it ( would be folly (o imagine, because in a I lime of stress, like the present, a certain 1 amount of friction has been caused by fiscal expedients and quotas, that necessarily it must follow that the long- , established trade relationships between i Great Britain and the. Dominions are to !l he destroyed. The President of the British Board of Trade may he desirous ol arranging trade agreements with f various foreign nations, and in order to s meet In's commitments with them he may t

be obliged to impose a system of quotas on the Dominions, but in* tlm end Great Britain will bo obliged to realise that her commercial interest m her own Empire naturally takes precedence, not merely because it is of primary importance, but because hers and tlm Empire's political and commercial interests arc inextricably woven together. Air Shaw may scoff, and certain misguided English journals may belittle the value of the imperialistic ideal,but tlie fact is that Britain is great because of the Empire, and Urn Empire prosperous because of Britain s wiso and generous leadershiu.