THE NEW BRITISH POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16434, 10 January 1917, Page 6

THE NEW BRITISH POLICY.

T£e new British policy of concentrating the national and administrative energies upon the war, in order to bring the struggle to a speedier conclusion, is already affecting the British, export trade. This trade for 1916, as a whole, showed such an extraordinary increase as to explain the criticism that millions of men of military age are still employed in non-essential industries for December, however, it was already considerably below the average of the previous four months, though still in excess of the December figures of the previous year. The external trado of the United Kingdom for each of the past four years can now be compared:—

Imports. Exports. I £ £ 1913 _ 744.640.631 ... 487,223.439 1913 „ T55.734.739 ._ 525,345,289 1914 ... 696.635,113 .„ 430.731.357 1915 „ 653.756,279 ... 364.647.336 1916 ... 949.152.679 ... 506,546JU2 This shows that last year the United Kingdom, in spite of the huge enlistments, and in spit* of the vast production of munitions— are taken over by the Imperial Government within the country, and do not appear in the exports^sent abroad greater values, principally of manufactured goods, than it had done in any previous year excepting 1913. Munitions, however, have become more valuable than money, permanent security more desired than profitable markets. Greater production of munitions and greater armies could only be obtained at the expense of ordinary trade, and this the export returns for December show. At nearly £40,000,000 i the export trade for last month is more than that for the December of the previous year, but it is so much less than that for the previous seven months of 1916 that it must be interpreted as an immediate result of the policy inaugurated by Mr. Lloyd George. This policy, as we have pointed out, is deliberately directed towards curtailing the export of specified commodities, and also towards reducing the manufacture of non-essential articles in order to expedite and increase the manufacture of munitions and to provide men for the reserves. The statement that Britain can now supply shell for the American Navy must be interpreted by the knowledge that shell deteriorates with long keeping, and that huge slocks of naval shells are held and are constantly renewed by the Admiralty. Shells for the artillery, guns for the army, military stores of every kind, are prodigiously used and insatiably demanded. The temporary decline of British exports may be expected to continue as the man-power of Britain is devoted to the colossal task of winning the war, instead of being dissipated in an impossible attempt to conduct "business as usual "at the same time. New Zealand can assist the Empire not only by applying its industrial energies to the supply of Imperial requirements, but by spending as little as possible until British trade returns to its normal channels..