FREETRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20288, 22 December 1927, Page 7

FREETRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE.

SUPERIORITY OF IMPERIAL RESOURCES. WAY TO FUTURE PROSPERITY. SIR ALFRED MOND’S VISION. (Fbom Odd Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 5. A notable plea for a tariff-tight system of Freetradc within the British Empire was put forward by Sir Alfred Mond, M.P., in an address to the Empire Industries Association, of which over 200 members of Parliament are members. Great Britain mugt choose, he said, between joining the economic union of Europe, and creating an Imperial economic unit. A policy of isolation was impossible. The British Empire as an economic unit would be in a position to dictab the most favourable trading terms in the world. “ Give me the British Empire as a territory, and I will then produce more than the American people ever dreamt of.” This was a notable sentence in his striking speech. He advocated the creation of a single tariff for the whole of the British Empire, and a much more rapid and energetic development of Empire population and resources. “ Why be afraid of a general tariff for the Empire?” he asked. “With such a policy we could compel the most favourable trading conditions in the world, and attain a position not to negotiate, but to dictate.” Not only the prosperity of England’s millions, but the continuance of the Empire itself, said Sir Alfred Mond, depended on the organisation of our possessions as an economic unit. Business men in France and Germany were amazed at the little use we made of the Empire’s strength. In national industries the tendency was towards amalgamations, and in international towards cartels and agreements. America lived with free internal exchange and a tariff against flic rest of the world. In the same conditions—for we were not less enterprising, intelligent, or capable than any, other nation—the British Empire could mass-produce more than America ever dreamed of. IN A POSITION TO DICTATE.

As a set-off to the American group was the growing idea of economic union for Europe. Was this country ready _to enter the European ring, with its possible ultimate customs union, or would it remain isolated between these two great trading units? Isolation was impossible, and the one solution w r as the creation of an Imperial economic unit more powerful than cither of the other two. Sir Alfred quote figures demonstrating the Empire’s huge preponderance of territory and resources. “We arc overwhelming in superiority,” he declared. “ Throughout its varied climes and far-flung lands the Empire contains almost everything wo want in order to exist and resources against wdiieh no other economic unit could compete. It commands some of the world’s leading commodities, and we could be in a position to compel the most favourable trading terras in the world. We arc in a position not to negotiate, but to dictate.” LAND INSTEAD OP DOLES. A tribute to the prescience of Joseph Chamberlain followed, and then Sir Alfred strongly criticised the “ slow' and tedious rate of progress of Empire settlement.” Why not, he asked, spend the hundreds of millions paid to people foi doing nothing in buying them land and giving them capital to settle in the Dominions, thereby relieving the labour market here and providing fresh customers for Britain? The facts and the policies needed adjusting and focussing. “ Economic theories are merely tools, not masters. Why should we be afraid of the idea of a general tariff for the Empire.'” An Empire pool of compensation could be formed, out of which industries suffering from a reduction of tariffs and workmen thrown out of employment could be reimbursed. “ Apply business methods to the Empire,” he pleaded. With such an economic policy would come greater cohesion; without it the tendency must be towards dissipation. “It is the solemn duty of all, and particularly of the present Government, not to allow these problems to drift any longer in the void, or to bo frightened because of pledges given or not given, but to take up a policy vital to the future of the British race.”