POLICY OF PROTECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22779, 15 January 1936, Page 14

POLICY OF PROTECTION

EMPIRE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION • FOREIGN GOODS STILL POURING IN, ‘From Odb Own Correspondent.) (By Air Mail) LONDON, December 14. It is 10 years since the Empire Industries Association was formed to further the policy of tariff protection. Ten years ago their task of converting the public from Freetrade seemed almost impossible. This week at their annual meeting and luncheon, they celebrated their victory, especially in the recent elections, for 275 of the members were either re-elected or won seats for the first time in Parliament.

To the introduction of the Tariff-Pre-ference policy, they ascribe the following facts:—

Unemployment has greatly decreased; employment stands higher than ever before; exports are steadily increasing while competitive imports have been reduced: the heavy adverse balance of trade has disappeared; the cost of living has not been increased by Protection; increased Customs revenue at the rate of £53,000,000 a year made the reduction of income tax possible and Imperial Preference has caused a remarkable increase in inter-Empire trade. Thus every Freetrade prediction has been falsified. The association, however, considers that their objective is only half won. “Nearly two million unemployed still command our sympathy,” they state in their report, “ and their problem cries out for solution. The various Socialistic palliatives recently proposed are no cure and would merely spread the problem from the depressed areas to others and injure credit. What is needed- is a great constructive effort to improve the general trade of the country. Our policy ha s laid the foundations and its completion with vigour is the only sure method of solving the problem. We therefore again declare that the present tariff policy is incomplete, and must speedily be strengthened so as* to provide the greatest volume of employment. INCREASED IMPORTS.

■‘lmports of manufactures, instead of being checked, are on the increase, and £120,000,000 of manufactured imports, exclusive of non-ferrous metals, oils and fats and chemicals, are pouring in per annum. At least 75 per cent, of these goods can be produced in our own factories, mills, and workshops, , and their production in Great Britain would provide additional employment, direct and indirect, for 400,000 persons. “ Certain branches of agriculture- are now flourishing, and the advantages they have received from the tariff must be extended to livestock and other producers who are still subjected to strong foreign competition. We believe that as a result of a determined policy, a large additional population could be employed directly and indirectly on the countryside. “ The Empire overseas, in spite of the commencement of a general policy of pro; ference, is still importing £150,000,000 ot foreign manufactures per annum. We believe that by a more courageous extension of preference, £75,000,000 of these imports into the Empire might pass to the industries of Great Britain, providin£ wages for another 400,000 workers. RESULTS OF OTTAWA.

Speaking at the luncheon. Sir Henry Pa<m Croft. M.P., chairman of the Executive Committee, said there were two outstanding landmarks as a result of the Ottawa Conference. During 1934, for the first time in history, Britain sold more manufactures to the Empire than to all foreign countries put together. In October this year she sold, in total British exports, more to the Empire than to all foreign countries. That, he stated, was achieved through expanding trade; not at the expense of exports to foreigners, which actually increased, but by the marked increase in the export trade under the flag at a time when the exports of nearly every other country had been showing a decline. Sir Henry thought they were entitled to ask for an explicit statement as to what was meant by the Foreign Secretary when he declared at Geneva that the raw materials of the world must be made more accessible to the nations. Those who had made some study of raw materials placed on record their knowledge that the raw materials of the British Empire were not only available to all mankind, but that so little demand had been made for them that the primary producers of the Empire for many years had been on their beam ends.

BRITISH CITIZENS NOT FOR SALE,

If those loose phrases encouraged the expansionist and aggressive Powers to think that we could ease their troubles by an increased supply of raw materials, the reply was that they could not offer more freely than they did to-day, when they offered unlimited supplies at economic or less than economic prices. The Socialist Party, Sir Henry continued, had expanded the phrase to mean that we were prepared to discard the British Empire. The British Empire was not for the Socialists to offer either as a gift to anyone or as a bribe to tyrants. Subjects of the British Crown werfe not for sale. The time had come not to destroy the glorious foundations laid for us in four continents, but to erect a structure unassailable—a place of fraternity, peace, and unity, which would be an example in a mad world of strife.