EMPIRE'S FUTURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22401, 23 April 1936, Page 15

EMPIRE'S FUTURE

A COEI'OEATE UNIT NEW ZEALAND'S NEEDS FOOD SUPPLIES OF BRITAIN [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON, April 4 "It is up to the British people and to the British Government to help the Dominions against subsidised foreign mercantile shipping in the Pacific; otherwise 1 warn you that British shipping will he gradually eliminated," said Viscount Blcdisloe at a luncheon given by the Liverpool branch of the Royal Umpire Society, at which ho and Lady Bledisloe were guests of honour. Lord Blcdisloe said ho thought there was no greater guarantee of world peace than the solidarity of the British Empire. It was his function, ho felt, to j preserve the nation from myopia and self-centredness, and to remind them that in the future it was not Great Britain, but the British Empire, which must become increasingly the corporate unit of their lives and the focus of their patriotism. New Zealand's Anxieties "For five years," said Lord Bledisloe, "I have lived in two islands in the Pacific Ocean, where I was not merely Governor-General, but also Commander-in-Chief, and I want to tell you that tho most profound sources of anxiety there in tho matter of security from outside interference are, on tho one hand, tho craving for territorial expansion by nations whoso shores arc washed by tho waters of tho Pacific, and, on the other hand, tho gradual crushing out by subsidised competition on tho part of foreign vessels of the merchant shipping of tho British Empire. "This may have an injurious effect on our shipping and shipbuilding, but its greater gravity lies in our increased helplessness in time of war owing to the non-availability of the auxiliary fighting strength and transport facilities of our mercantile marine. It is no good looking to tho resources of relatively poor countries like Australia and New Zealand to find the means to fight this unfair competition." Blow to Dominion The British people were not altogether free from the habit of thought of economic nationalism. Many foolish things were being said nowadays about the possibility of making Britain selfcontained in the matter of essential foodstuffs. Britain could never provide more than 60 per cent of her enormous food requirements from her own soil, and, even if she could, under a drastic system of protection, quite apart from the injury it would inflict on the poorer consumers it would deal an economic death blow at the overseas Empire, not to mention Britain's own export manufacturers. In no country would the blow bo more severe than in New Zealand, 93 per cent of whose exports were sent to Britain. There would be no alternative to bankruptcy for New Zealand. "Am I wrong," asked Lord Bledisloe, "when I say that the time has arrived when we, who claim to bo Imperialists, must not merely wave Union Jacks, but must do all in our power to people our Empire and develop it with our resources ? If wo do not mako uso of this great heritage, how aro we going to stand in the way of others who do want to make use of it? There is nothing which will be more conducive to the continuous peace of the world than the peopling of our territory with our own people, and the suppression for all time of the suggestion that we are dogs in the manger." British Capital Abroad The amount of British capital invested abroad was no less than £3,000,000,000. Of that, over a third was domiciled in foreign countries, while Britain's overseas territory was crying aloud for British capital for its development. British investments in Argentina exceeded those in Now Zealand and South Africa put together. The investments in South American Bepublics taken as a whole exceeded the aggregate of those in Canada and New Zealand combined. That surely was not a very wholesome state of affairs for a great Empire. The amount of American capital invested in Canada was as much as 4,000,000,000 dollars, as against 2,700,000,000 dollars of British capital. Fortunately, the trado between the Mother Country and her Dominions, since the Ottawa Conference and agreements, had been appreciably increasing, but even that increase was nothing much to boast of. The total imports from British countries to Britain amounted to 37.6 per cent, as against 62.4 per cent from foreign countries. Exports' were rather more satisfactory, but again nothing very much to boast about. The total exports to British countries from Great Britain amounted to 48 per cent, as against 52 per cent from foreign countries.