EMPIRE TARIFF

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17453, 30 December 1930, Page 10

EMPIRE TARIFF

•• i. r r,, q* SWING OF THE PENDULUM SIGNS IN BRITAIN In a number of Punch, aftgr the do* bade of the Imperial Conference,., there appeared a cartoon in which Mr. Snowden, bravely disguising his grief at parting, was represented by saying to the departing delegates, “Good-by-eel- as though he was never to see. them again. On the other hand, .Mr. Baldwin calls hopefully after them, “Au re voir. This, in the opinion of Sir John b. Randles, who with Lady Randles arrived lit Auckland by the llangitiki, fairly accurately described the- attitude toward tho conference. Sir John was for many years a member of the British Parliament, and lie- was a contemporary of many of The - men famous in the world of politics to-day. Ho also sat in .the House with the Gov-'ernor-Gcneral of New Zealand, Lord Bledisloe. He is retired now, but- he follows the course of events with the keenest of interest. He was always a stout advocate <jf "Imperial preference, unci lie thinks that‘if it came to n dearcut. issue at the general election the platform of tariff reform would cany the diuV. lie goes so -far ns to Say that the time is not far away when the leader of Great Britain will bo a mail pledged' to that very tiling. ■ Trade conditions were bud in England, said-Sir Joint, and Hint, fad, liad a.bellying on tho vexed problem of Imperial preference. He wits an'irbiiiiiaster before lie retired, so ho spoke of a side of manufacturing business which lie •understood. Instead 1 of being foremost in iron manufacturing Britain Was now fourth, America,. Germany, arid Fraiipp being be-, fore her. Matterk would have to take a course different from ~ Ilia,t whiylr they had followed in other times of depressions before they could improve.', Britain could no longer swing iiai' k again to the

liead of the manufacturing . nations as she did after the depression . following the Napoleonic wars, the' pgyiod t» Which people often compared the present. Other standards were necessary, aifo another way of combating the depression. This was where the* Dominions ciuile into the matter. Tariffs, were necessary, tariffs .Which iricludld the Empire aha which would foster the economic tie.. As time Went oh the oversea^'Empire would tako more and more of . tho goods of England. The issue whuld be forced upon Britain because she. could ho longer capture the world as she was formerly wbut to do. Competition .was too strong for.her, and more and more countries were, -.producing those very commodities which at one time she manufactured without rival. Thus the seebnd courser-con-sideration of the 'colonies—would gradually be forced on her. j * * . Sir John has come to New Zealand mi account of his health. He and Lady Randles will go to Rotorua after spending some llmip in Auckland.