STATE INTERFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11168, 25 March 1922, Page 2

STATE INTERFERENCE

TRADE AND INDUSTRY. LONDON BUSINESS MEN’S PROTEST. LONDON, January 28'. Interference, by the Stave with trade and 'industry was the chief topic of discussion at a public meeting heid in London in January, convened by. the National Association of Merchants ana Manufacturers.

The • following resolution was submitted by two prominent London bankers. and carried with unanimity* and acclamation:—

•‘That, in view of the present serious economic, and financial situation, and the imperative need of replacing the wealth annihilated by the war, this meeting of bankers, manufacturers, merchants and shipowners—s.) Calls upon the Government to adopt iniiticdiatcly a policy of drastic rctronchm’ent in the untinnal expenditure, and to enforce a rictid ceouom.v in the .administration of all public departments; Demands that the interference with our commerce, whether by Parliament or by the Administration, bo stayed at once; and that trad# and indufftrv be released from the trammels imposed by the Safeguarding of Industries Act, and allowed to recover the same freedom as before the war.’’ MU ASQUITH’S ANTIDOTE. “What is tho sum of the whole matter:'” ajjked Mr Asquith, who was tJic chief speaker. “It is the rigorous curtailment of unproductive expenditure ; putting an end to the artificial multiplication of purchasing power and credit inflation ; the cessation of paralysing and sterilising State interference iu the'whole domain of business and industry; and, finally, the assessment and liquidation of outstanding international liabilities ; the immediate lowering and ultimate removal of tauifF barriers, with the result of opening of all market* to the free interchange of commodities : tho effective prosecution of a universal policy of disarmament, both on the sea, on land, and in the air; the resolute avoidance of entangling, engagements, which may tie our hands and mortage the future between separate Powers cr groups of Powers.”