POST-WAR TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1916, Page 3

POST-WAR TRADE.

AiN y IMPORTANT DISCUSSION. A conference on a very important subject was held in the Courthouse yesterday, when members of the Ta'ranaki Chamber of Commerce met the members of the Board of Trade, by invitation, to discuss the problem of post-war trade. Mr. W. G. McDonald (acting chairman), presided, and there were also present: Messrs. J. R. Hart and P. Hally (monitors of the Board of Trade), and the following members of the Chamber of Commerce: Messrs. J. D. Sole (president), W. J. Penn, A. Mcllardy, J. "Mon, F. S. Johns, J. B. Connett, and Yewton King. Rev. A. B. Chappell was also present. Apologies were received for the absence of the Mayor, Messrs. Slmv and Webster.

Mr. Sole, thanked the Commissioners for the opportunity afforded of discussing the matter." The views of the Chamber were set out in the resolutions passed at the recent conference of Chambers of Commerce. He thought they should only deal with matters during the currency of the war. The future being left in the hands of the powers that arrange the terms of peace While the war was on they should prohibit the importation of German goods, o.'iher directly or through neutral countries. He understood that there was still a certain amount of illicit trading, which was difficult to combat. Mr. McDonald said that their views should not be confined to the question of trade with the enemv during the period of the war. Steps had been taken by the Government, as far as legislation was concerned, to absolutely prohibit trade with the enemy, and it was only a question of administering the law, which he had no doubt would be rigidly enforced, if any cases could be sheeted home. They had to enquire into the conditions of post-war trade. He then gave a brief outline of the trend of the Commission's present views on the question—not their matured conclusions, as the subject had not been thoroughly discussed. The question presented two aspects, Imperial and local. The subject of Empire trade with the enemy would be dealt with at the conference that dictated the terms of peace, and all they could do would be t'i give an enlightened commercial opinion as to what the,terms should be, so that the strong expression of public opinion should be put forward bv representatives of the Dominion " who would be invited to attend the conference. Then, regarding the local aspect, what it might be impossible for Great Entail) to do, on account of the many ramifications of the subject and the gigantic commercial and financial interests at stake, it might be possible to do in New Zealand, where our trade with Germany' was only 2 percent, of our imports and 3 per'cent, of our exports. Dealing in small figures, we could afford to make the experiment, and could cut out all the German trade without dislocating our finance or commerce. In England where the conditions were so interlocked, it would be a serious thing to break away so suddenly from a traditional policy, 'and it might be impossible to do so owing to the financial and commercial interests involved. He was sorry that so many ''hey" industries had been allowed to fall into German hands. Assuming, he said, that after the war we had the option of trading with our kith and kin, or with our late enemy, lie did not think that we could forget the many atrocities committed by the enemy, nor could we fail to call to mind tile British Navy that protected us, the deeds of our brothers in Canada, Australia, South Africa, ihc glories won by our kinsmen in England, Ireland and Wales and that it would take a great deal of cheapress of German goods to make us send .-•ur money to Germany. It was felt at the conference in Auckland that advantage should be taken of the wave of patriotic feeling throughout the country to direct our trade in that direction, and to prove that our trade follows the flag. This could be accomplished, it was suggested, either by absolute prohibition of trade with Germany for a fixed period of, say, 2, 3 or 5 years, or for an indefinite period, or by some system of imposts. The former would he (he most simple to bring into operalion and carry out. If imposts, these would have to be put on between the landing and final consumption of the goods. It had also been pointed out that there should be a stricter declaration of German goods. It had been sn»gested that before goods were declared British, four-fifths of the value should accrue to Britain, instead of one-half as at present. Some, however, considered that mean 9, between these two, should be decided on. It had also been suggested that the Company Law should be amended so as to make it compulsory that the nationality of shareholders in all companies should be disclosed, as was done in the case of British

shipping. When a policy of preferential trade was in force, German houses, by various skilful means, beat its effect by bounties, etc. In fact, it was said that goods could be brought from Hamburg, via London, cheaper than they could from London direct.

Mr. Johns: And by British ships, unfortunately.

Continuing, Mr. McDonald said he thought that an Imperial Trade Commission should be set up to cope with any dodges and tricks the enemy might adopt. It was also suggested that steps should be taken to prevent (ho capture of our internal trade by German firms, by putting a tax on German firms and on travellers for German goods. He would like to stress the fact that the struggle should not end on the field of battle, but that it must be carried into t'.'.e field of commerce. It was a contest between two ideals, The German ideal that everything must be subservient to the State, and that the necess'ty of the State justified every viola lion of the laws of God and man. Our 'deal was "National rights for every man." The duplicity of the Germans in the last forty years had allowed them to undermine our commerce system. Tley had captured the sugar and metal trades, and had a monopoly of seme explosives, chemical dyes, l:;ngstcn power, opera glasses, and oven drugs required by our wounded soldiers, England, when the war broke out, was put ti great cost to improvise substitutes. Ve must see to it that, having beaten Germany to her knees on the fields of battle, we must not allow her to remain on the fields of commerce and trade. If we were so forgetful as to refuse to do (Ins, then, in the words of the poet, "we deserved to have our name idottcd from the pages of history, and gc down to the depths from which we frprung. uniwf"'"'-. iinhonored, and unsung." Mr. W. J. Bonn held that Xiw Zealand could not deal finally with the question, which must be dealt with by,an .imperial conference. There should be unity of policy throughout the Empire, lie "thought embargo nga'nst enemy trading should be extended indefinitely a.id not for a stated term. It would be premature to say what should hs

done in a few months time. There was no doubt that a good deal of German goods came to the Dominion still, and he thought the Customs Department should, if possible, be more stringent. If German goods were admitted peopic .•liould have better means of knowing what (hoy wore buying. This might be done by domestic legislation. Mr. F. iS. Johns also thought it prema,--ture to discuss the question. If England cut out Gorman trade she not oniy lost one of her biggest customers, but would force Germany to trade with America, and the result might be thut .Vow York would oust London from the position of the world's financial centre. 'The imposition of an impost would at once raise a howl against the removal of competition. If German trade bcea,me so keen that is resulted in the lowering of the standard wage in British countries, then free trade would have to be thrown away and a system of protection adopted. New Zealand could do without Germany, because the Motherland would always pay enough for our primary products to enable us to got a profit out of them. He had no confidence in the British citizen's patriotism in buying British goods. The majority of people would buy at the cheapest price the articles they required, no matter where they were made. He considered that cutting out the competition of a hundred million people from the Central Powers would not fail to raise the cost of living, and though not pro-German, ho did not see iiow' we could do without the Central' Powers.

The chairman thought there was an exaggerated idea of German trade. During the year before the war England imported £50,000,000 worth of goods from Germany, and exported to Germany £40,000,000 worth. At the peace conference we would not surrender our rights of self-government, but, in addition to the Imperial tariff, we would have the right to a local tariff. Mr. Johns pointed out that already the competition of Japan was beginning to be felt.

Mr, Newton King thought that whatever was done would eventually be done through a Customs impost. lie had for years been lighting against German goods. Whatever we did must be governed by the Imperial conference. He did not sue how there could be a total prohibition of German goods, since Germany had certain things that we could not do without, and he instanced potash and stated that we were suffering now because we could not get potash. Rev. A. B. Chappell said that unless the British Empire was self-contained it would be futile to lay down a policy that we would be entirely free of trade with the Central Powers. He thought that our own industries should be strengthened, and that we should endeavor to increase the loyalty, thrift and efficiency of our workers. Mr. J. D. Sole said the question of blocking German trade was a very difficult one, as goods came through neutral countries. He considered America Was -;lie greatest culprit. He knew that a. lot of goods came in branded as made in U.S.A. that had been made by German experts. Messrs Hart and Halley briefly spoke, the latter saying that there was one aspect that had not been touched on, and that was that children in the schools should be educated to support British goods. Some of the ideas, that had been advanced were original, and the information would he of use to the Board. The conference then closed.