The Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28,1922. INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18592, 28 June 1922, Page 4

The Otago Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28,1922. INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

A discussion upon somewhat narrow lines has begun in the dominion on the question whether trading should bo resumed with Germany and her associates against the Allies in the late war. In the older countries of the world the matter is being dealt with on the wide plane of the necessity for foreign trade. Despite a belief to the contrary which has obtained quite a large vogue there is in actual fact no nation that can be said to bo self-contained. Put in other words, no nation can afford: to live a life of economic isolation. One of the needs of the Old World is the re-establish-ment of foreign trade, for the general shrinkage of commerce is at present embarrassing practically the whole of Europe and America. Speaking prior to the - Genoa Conference Mr Lloyd George pointed out that British foreign trade last year “was only 50 per cent, of what it was before the war, the international trade of Germany was about 25 per cent.; and the percentage of French trade (including that of AlsaceLorraine and the Saar Valley) was lighter by 57 per cent.” a What that' shrinkage means in the prosperity of the respective countries, and what its influence is on the labour market should be readily understood. In the United States, where unemployment reached a higher point than in any of the other great nations, the position ias affected by the loss of foreign trade is most interesting. The Americans made preparations on an unprecedented scale for an extension of foreign trade immediately following the war. We quote a statement made last month by Mr James S. Alexander, President of the National Bank of Commerce in New York, in an address to the National Foreign Trade Convention at Philadelphia:— Tliis activity, accompanied and stimulated by the belief (commonly held during the war) that the close of the war must bring the United States a permanently increased share of world trade, was followed by the rapid development and expansion of manufacturing, trading, and financial facilities for foreign business. In the haste to get ns much trade as possible each individual concern expanded without much regard to the aggregate results of similar expansion carried on by other concerns. After a few months of intense activity we found the supply of available credit used up and the increased buying capacity of Europe cut short, with the result that world trade collapsed, leaving us with a foreign-trade equipment not only far in excess of restricted demands but also in excess of normal trade needs. In a lengthy review of the whole position of trade Mr Alexander placed repeated emphasis on the importance of foreign trade. “If there is one thing that is now clear in the light of recent evidence,” he “it is that with the growing importance of the United States has come growing and unmistakable dependence upon the rest of the world.” Advancing civilisation demands an ever-increasing bond and volume of trade between the nations, and in Mr Alexander’s opinion “from the most important point of view that a nation can take —namely, that of the standard of living of the masses of the people,— we must have foreign trade to an everincreasing extent.” If America, jvhich has been wont to regard herself as a self-contained nation, needs foreign trade so badly it follows that several of the Continental nations (including Germany and Russia) need it much worse. This has long been patent to students of foreign politics. Probably, when America fully realises the indispensability of foreign trade, she will be less indisposed to accept her share of the responsibilities in the work of the financial reconstruction' of Europe.