TRADE WITHIN EMPIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 8

TRADE WITHIN EMPIRE

SIR JAMES PARR ON FISCAL UNION SPEECH AT BIRMINGHAM I Sir James Parr, the former High Commissioner for New Zealand, n pounded the Dominion point of view on Empire Free Trade at a luncheon of the Midland Branch of the National , Fnion of Manufacturers at Firmine [ ham. on May 12. He said: So far as the Colonies are c » ; cerned there is no reason why /.*- should not hare fiscal union with them ! tomorrow. I refer not to the great self-govern-ing Dominions, but to the nations ! scattered over the tropical countries of the world, a market of 50,000,000 of people, whose trade is over 400 millions a year and over 100 millions of whose imports is going i to foreign i pockets at the present time. w’hy ! should they not go into yours? You have given these native races the finest conditions that any European Power gives its races. You defend ; them against foreign attack, yet you i possess a fiscal system which permits ) foreign people to flood these colonies i of yours with their cheap goods. AMERICAN EXAMPLE In the shop windows of American i colonies you would need a very big | microscope to see any goods that are j not American. The Dominions today are spending ! £500.000,000 a year with foreign man- [ ufaeturers. They are your best customers notwithstanding, for they take ‘ 50 per cent, of your fully manufac tured goods. Leaving out the sentiment about I your kinsmen, surely every good bugi- | ness man would wish to eat the food I which is produced by his best customer. New Zealand spends £34 10s a head of population with England. The Danes io not spend £” a head, while Englard gives them £22,000,000 a year for butter. Most of that money goes afterwards to your principal competitor, Germany, to strengthen her in competing with you in the markets of the world. It is rather depressing to find, as I did in Manchester, that Japanese cotton is being sold, and to read that in Northampton Czeflio-Slovakian boots are being hawked by women at 5s to 10s a pair. I was ashamed this morning when ! shaving myself to find that I had American soap, a French razor, and a i Japanese brush.