INDUSTRY AND DEFENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22398, 20 April 1936, Page 8

INDUSTRY AND DEFENCE

The protection given certain key industries in Great Britain by Part I. of the Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921, should, according to an investigating committee, be extended for a further 10 years. The first part of the Act deals with commodities deemed so important to national defence that the country should be made independent of foreign sources of supply. The choice of goods to be covered by it was dictated by experience gained during the war. For instance, when the question was being debated in 1926, the then President of the Board of Trade said that before the war Britain had practically no manufacture of magnetos, and daring the war had to put German magnetos into aeroplane engines. The decision to take steps against such a situation was not exclusively British. The underlying pi-inciple of independence in vital industries was accepted at an Allied conference held in Paris in 1916. Immediate action was taken in Britain to investigate the position, with the result that in 1917 a committee, presided over by Lord Balfour of Burleigh, reported specifying certain commodities as essential to the defence of the country and as having been supplied before the war from enemy sources or from sources under enemy control. It recommended that industries producing such commodities should be promoted and safeguarded. The advice thus given was embodied in the 1921 Act, which gave protection for five years to the goods specified. In 1926 this was extended for a further 10 years, a term which will expire next August,, Another committee has now recommended an extension for another 10 years. In 1926 the safeguarding duties were criticised as amounting to protection introduced by the back door. The present proposal for a further extension should not be attacked much on that score in view of the complete change in tariff policy. The increased emphasis now being laid on Empire defence should be a further aid to the ready acceptance of the recommendations.