THE LESSON OF FACTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20978, 15 September 1931, Page 8

THE LESSON OF FACTS.

In the British Board of Trade returns for August, with their tain of a decreased volume of trade, there is a lesson for every part of the Empire. Jt should be thoroughly learned and applied in this Dominion. The facts are plain. For the month, the value of imports into Britain was £65,400,000, a decrease of £14,591,000 compared with August of last year ; exports had a total value of £28,360,000, a decrease of £13,640.000, and re-exports a value of £3,664,000, a decrease of £2,678,000. A comparison of the returns for the first eight months of this year reveals a fall of £153,000,000 in imports and a fall of £154,000,000 in exports. This experience of falling trade returns in Britain reacts abroad in the Empire. For instance, New Zealand is so dependent on the Homeland for markets and finance that depression there entails depression here. 11 should be taken to mean also a necessity in this country for resolute facing of the altered conditions. So long as Britain's trade languishes this Dominion cannot get the good prices for its products that used to rule, and there is a consequent necessity here for still more public and private economy. We must cut our coat according to our cloth. In this way there can be hastened the removal of the economic depression so widely prevalent. To continue to act regardless of changed conditions would be utterly foolish. In the face of the facts we must revise our action. A striking instance of this is furnished in'the news to-day that Lord Inchcape, a lifelong Freetrader, does not hesitate to say that, in view of the conditions under which Britain at present finds herself, there should be admitted the financial expediency of a tariff for the protection of British industry and agriculture. He expressly admits it. No one knows better than Lord Inchcape what Free Trade has done in the development of Britain's great shipping industry, yet he sees the absolute necessity of facing the position of to-day with different means. This is a salutary example of reviewing methods in the light of facts. What he suggests as advisable for Britain is applicable to the whole Empire. The conditions of to-day do not allow of old doctrines and old measures. They should give place to others under the constraint of stern necessity.