SIR JOYNSON-HICKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18787, 14 February 1923, Page 4

SIR JOYNSON-HICKS

NUW 111 All 01'’ THE D.O.T. ENTERTAINED BY THE R.C.I. LONDON, December 20. Sir William Joynson-Hieks, M.T’., the now head of tho Department of Overseas Trade, was to-day entertained by the members of (he Royal Colonial Institute. Sir William, who lias in the mind of tho public been identified with tho subject of avialion, has taken up his new duties very entlnisiasti(ally, and in pursuance thereof gave us a striking sketch of tho relative position of the United Kingdom and the United States as exporters to (he various dominions. He startd off with those of New Zealand, and gave a fairly oxhaiisjive analysis of (he export figures and their (rend over a period of years, bringing out how the inferiority of the United States before tho war was rapidly transformed, and showed how both relatively and absolutely tho American figures have been rising constantly. Ho cited figures for the other dominions in less detail, but sufficiently to emphasise his point that wo in the United Kingdom have to meet American competition. He pointed out that owing to its proximity this .characteristic of the trade throughout the Empire was at its highest in Canada. Ho said that (hero was a well-marked development in the dominions towards becoming competitors in manufactures, and cited Australia and its boot trade, and added that tho dominions demanded protection for their manufacturing industries. Sir William sa.w no hone in Europe of our being able to recapture the markets there from which wo formerly drew £300,000,000 a year. Ho was -led to this belief because, although after (lie Napoleonic wars there had lieon great depression, there was (his mitigating factor, that, there followed a great incrc-ase in productiveness owing to the development of steam power. Now he secs no germ of hope. There: is now as great depression, if not worse, and no indication of some now factor (hat. will transform trade as did the industrial era that followed the Napoleonic wavs. He can see in these, circumstances but one direction in which there can be great expansion, and that is in (be empty dominions of Australia and of Canada. Belter, he says, to spend tho hundred millions now being devoted in unemployment, benefit, in Poor Law grants, in helping the dominions to get bigger populations. By so doing we shall place therein potential purchasers of British goods—the Old Country would, in fact, ho creating its own market.