"FREE TRADE GONE MAD."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19196, 12 June 1924, Page 11

"FREE TRADE GONE MAD."

Mil SNOWDEN'S BUDGET. IMPERIAL PREFERENCE SWEPT AWAY. BLOW TO-EMPIRE TRADE. (Fbom Ou.n Own Coeeesfosdent.) LONDON, May 6. Two points in Mr ISnowtlcu s Budget are of vital importance to the- dominions-- tire principle involved in the abolition of the M'Konna duties, and the decision of the Government not. to carry through any one of the additional preferences which wore settled at the last Economic Conference. How serious the effect of these things may be to the progre-ss of ,tllP Empire has yet to be seen. Already the Prime Minister of Australia and General Smuts have made very serious statements which must have been read by a large proportion of English people with something akin to dismay. As for the abolition of the M'Konna duties, ibis to anyone overseas who has not been brought up in the British political atmosphere seems wanton race suicide. It is estimated that as the result of the removal of the duties on August 1. at least 100,000 men in (he motor trade will be deprived of employment. Foreign motor cars will pour into the country anil skilled British workers will pour out of it. Sir Robert Horne led the attack on the Budget. The motor ear industry, be said, had been doing something which the House of Commons had failed to do. “It has provided work for men in the trades they are skilled In and at which they want to work. What harm is the dntv on motor cars doing anybody? Is there a single person who has complained that he is not- getting his motor car cheap enough because of the duties?- You cannot find a single person in the country who has made such a complaint?” Scanning the Government benches, he asked (hem: “What good are you going to do?!’ and there was never a murmur iu answer. Could they deny that if the duties were abolished firms would have to discharge workmen? One member ventured a “Yes.” but his voice was overliornc in the shout of derision which it excited. “Kero is an industry.’’ Sir Robert went on, “which is working well and giving employment.. If you leave il alone nobody can say that aiiy harm will be done. If you interfere with it you run the risk of doing harm. Have you the right to run the risk of putting a single man on'the streets or robbing ins wife and family of their support?” Complaining of (he action of the Government in refusing to endorse the now preference arrangements with the dominions arrived at by the Imperial Conference last, autumn. Sir Robert Said the Government had not only done nothing to relieve unemployment, but by this action were increasing it. Australia, with 5,500,000 people, bought more goods from us than the 110,000.000 people in the United States, than the 65,000.000 people in Germany, or the 40,000,000 people in France. The Govern ment were now busy trying to negotiate trade arrangements with Russia. The little country of New Zealand took as much from its in manufactured goods before the war as the whole of the teeming millions; of Russia.- (Opposition cheers.) It was madness to disregard every proposal for improved trading relations made by the dominions while ' spending the time or negotiating trade arrangements with a country like Russia, whose chief representatives reviled our Prime Minister. In the present state of unemployment we could not risk losing the dominion markets or holding the Empire together. COLONIAL SECRETARY’S RETORT. Mr J. H. Thomas, the Colonial Secretary, replied immediately for the Government, rallying Sir Robert on hi* chagrin at finding that the Socialist Government had falsified all his “humbug and talk" predicting their failure in administration and the ruin of the country. Referring to the Government’s attitude on the Empire preference proposals. Mr Thomas said it was always understood by the dominion Premiers that these would lie subject to the sanction of the House of Commons and the people of the country. He would like to see the Imperial Conferences madfe representative not only of the Government, bu* of-all parlies in the State. Of the 32 resc lutions passed by the Imperial Economic Conference last autumn, 28 had already been endorsed by the Government, and only two had been definitely opposed. When Captain R. Berkeley (L., Nottingham) rose to carry on the debate he was the. sole occupant of the Liberal benches', all bis colleagues having gone to the party meeting. lie was received wifh ironical cries of “Whore is your party?” and Mr C. Duncan (>Soc., Clay Cross, Derby) said: “The boy stood on the burning dock.” Captain Berkeley said the first effect of cutting the M'Konna duties away within three months in this abrupt manner must be that- the motor firms which thought they were going to lose trade would discharge some of their hands. The duties should have been removed gradually. SLAVES OF WORDS AND THEORIES. ' Air Austen Chamberlain, as the guest of the Imperial Commercial Association, on the day attor the presentation of Hie Budget, referred to the disquieting features therein contained. The M'Kcnna duties, ho said, had been found to give security, to the whole motor trade which enabled it not only to assume its pre-war position, hut to obtain a wholly new position. That was one of the very few now industries in which we could say unemployment was unknown. Those duties were to be swept away. Whatever our fiscal views, was it not folly and pedantry to allow ourselves to become (ho slaves of words and theories and to throw away the employment we had secured by accident, but without injury to anyone? Speaking at the Exeter Chamber of Commerce later in the week, Mr Chamberlain said he looked with profound and with everincreasing anxiety upon the fact that the Chancellor of the Exchequer refused to make any abatement of his prejudices, of his preconceptions, in regard to the duty to our sister nations yho wished to march side by side with us. Where could wo find any markets to fake the place of the dominion markets, where we had yet the greatest of all commercial assets, the goodwill of the customer? In the Great War we made a gesture recognising the united spirit of the Empire. To-day we told the colonies that between them and use there could be uo bond. in fact, we said that commerce was possible with Russia, but not. possible with our own kinsmen. Wo said; “We are grateful for all you give, we accept anything you offer, wo have nothing to give in return.” He viewed with grave anxiety the altitude of mind of the present majority in the House of Commons on these questions. Concessions had to be made, as in all things, to the colonies. Trade questions 'should be considered not merely from the point of view of fiscal theorists, but, having due regard to the necessities of the situation. AUSTRALIA HARD HIT. Sir Joseph Cook, at the Commercial Association luncheon, referred reservedly to the subject of the Budget. it ha,l really hit them very hard in the dominions he said. It left them in a much worse position than they were before. Not only had they declined to do anything with the proposals of the recent Imperial Conference, but they had gone further, and proposed to remove some of (he advantages which they had heretofore enjoyed. It just meant this. They had got to buckle up their hells another hole out there and pursue their way as best they could, with the great and added obligation of having to provide for many scores of thousands of ex-service men whore duties to-day consisted in nrodneing, with n view of marketing in London, those very things from which duties were proposed to be removed, “That is your concern as well as ours,” he added. “Your men are (here, wo have taken 25.000 ex-service men from I his country in (he last two years, and they are out there cultivating those little farms, growing tilings bv reason of the advantages we had enjoyed in this market. It means this in its consequences—it means we may not take so many of your unemployed as we otherwise should be able to do. It, may mean that in some other things you may be able io provide for them yoursolvoa. God knows that, (he problem is sufficiently oneroiig and anxious to excite the sympathetic consideration of every reasonable minded man in this country -ind in nil the outer dominions of (ho Empire.” SIR JAMES ALLEN'S VIEWS. Sir James Allen gave an interview to the Morning Post, but made it quite clear

(hat he was speaking unofficially. He could not. he said, refrain’ from expressing his sincere regret, at the setback that (his groat Imperial policy had apparently received. He hoped that (ho setback was more apparent than actual. At the Imperial Conference all the representatives of the .dominions, including the British Prime Minister and other members of the Imperial Government, sat at a round table conference in real Imperial amity, and, with a renuine appreciation of the importance of the matters with which (hey were dealing, agreed (o a policy -which was designed to ensure the permanent increase Of intcr-Imperial trade. Of course, if the new policy of the British Government was to he understood as implying that no preferences were to be made to the dominions by Great Britain, and all (be concessions were to be made by (treat Britain bv them, the whole position might have to be reconsidered by the dominions. He was® authorised to make any statement on behalf of the New Zealand Government, but speaking personally and quite unofficially, he was afraid that the new British policy .would 'militate against intcr-Imperial trade. Sir James Allen instanced the many cases in which the dominions, including New Zealand. hud actually paid higher prices for British goods under constructs .which had been placed in Great Britain (ban they need have paid if they bad obtained them from foreign tenderers. If it was to be the British policy to put the dominions on the same footing us foreign countries it might have the unfortunate effect ,ot influencing the dominions to follow suit by placing Great Britain on the same fooling as foreign countries. FREE TRADE GONE MAD. Apart from the broach of faith involved in turning down-the preference proposals, says the Morning Tost in its leading article, "and the insult, to the dominions, which is profoundly resented both by the dominions '•and in this country, and apart also from the, disastrous check imposed upon the relief of unemployment, let it be very carefully considered that-the action of the Government makes more-rigid the control by foreigners of the food supplies of this Country. They already dictate both quality and price. In the ease of America, the command which producers-hold over their own home market enables them to sell what they please in this country, and to choose their price, cutting out the produce of our own people. The policy of Iho Government may be described as Free Trade gone mad. It may with equal accuracy be defined as the betrayal alike of British and Imperial interest, which may bring the gravest consequences.” • EM PI RE MISM AN AG EMENT. “Of (he vaster aspect of Mr Snowden’s blunder,” says the Daily Express, “that which affects Imperial Preference' —we can only wait to see what form of retaliation will come from the dominions. The blowstruck at (he 'Canadian motor industry, which, by reason of preference, was steadily increasing its exports to Great Britain, will have an effect out Of alt proportion to its actual financial importance. The dominions arc not blind. They see more and mere ' that the hied at the head of" the affairs of government iu Great Britain had neither •' the vision nor the courage to administer this heritage of oceans, this monster commonwealth of spiritual and industrial units planned by the genius of our forefathers. Other Governments have shown indifference to Empire development, but, the Socialists have actually struck at 'the whole principle of Imperial preference. They must prepare their defence, for the question of Empire mismanagement is relentlessly forcing itself forward. Neither indifference nor disbelief can avoid it. It is written across the political skies.” DEEDS, NOT WORDS... “As to Imperial preference,” said Sir W. Joynson-Hicks, at a meeting at Bridlington, ‘The Government, had no right vo go back on what was virtually a treaty with the dominions, The position, seemed to .be that a treaty' could lie made with Russia without the assent of the people of this country, but if a treaty was proposed with our own dominions the whole thing was to be torn tip when a Labour Government came in. That was a blow at the Empire such as had not boon struck in its history. It was idle for the Colonial Secretary to prate about being an Imperialist. Let him show it in deeds. Words would not satisfy the dominions.” “It seems to us—and we write as .Freetraders”—says the Sunday Times, “sheer fiscal pedantry to pretend that thole is any principle involved of such urgency and importance as to outweigh the derangement and injustice that would'follow on the sudden lapse of the M'Kcnna duties. They have done no discernible harm to anyone, and a Labour Government,/that 'especially prides itself on having the interests of the working man at heart, ought to bo the last to risk a gratuitous increase- of- unemployment.” •