BRITISH TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21101, 8 February 1932, Page 13

BRITISH TRADE WITH RUSSIA.

j Sir, —The letter by "Free Trade" is a, j perfect example of tie manner in which j fconcciic theories are perverted to make a • case for free trade. He writes that j "economists tell us. and they happen to j speak the truth, that international trade • is a matter of exchange of goods and (or) | services." Why ignore "what economists ' tell ns, as '"Free Trade" does throughout i his letter 1 Economists say "exchange of | goods and (or) services." "Free Trade" ; says "exchange of goods." -which is an | entirely different thing. He absolutely ignores the fact that "services'* includes debts and investments; hence his ridicnk>us reference to New Zealand as dump* ing goods into Britain and refusing to take goods in return. Has he heard that this year New Zealand has to "damp" £14,000,000 sterling worth of goods into England to pay debt and interest t "Will the very act of New Zealand's exporting goods of that quantity into England "open a market soine-svijere for eijaivalent goods from Britain" ? As for British trade with Biissia and other countries, characterised in 1931 by an excess of imports cm account j of both goods aEd services, it may ba recalled that economists tell ns "that Britain has paid for the excess by withdrawing foreign investments and increasing her foreign liabilities. According to '\£ree Trade" tha way to expand exports is to increase imports, and since trade is measured hv money, the more eostlv the imports, the greater the expansion of exports. Bow delightfully simple. Let us order £2O.C£)O,OQQ worth of tb« in est expensive motor-cars from America, and ship all onr wool to where "'Free Trade's" mythical market is waiting for it—"somewhere." Eoosomt.