The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1923. TRADE RECOVERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1923, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1923. TRADE RECOVERY.

The views expressed by the Prince of Wales at the annual banquet of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce in April last are well worthy of close study. “Trade recovery,” said the Prince, “is the essential need for us to-day, and the country is looking to the business world to use every endeavor to foster that confidence which is the basis of commercial progress.

. . . The war lias left us with a legacy of industrial and commercial problems. But it must be remembered that the potentialities of British industry are not in any way impaired; and in spite of the enormous difficulties and discouragements which have been encountered, British enterprise is already giving proof of its resiliency and is going ahead.” Looking at these problems from a British point of view, the aspect is not very cheering. The war materially changed trade conditions, for instead of Europe purchasing British goods to a value of four hundred million a year, as was the case before the war, she presents a deplorable picture of commercial impotence, political chaos and militaristic mischief-making. Britain can, therefore, only mainly depend on trade within the Empire. The position is that she has a population larger—perhaps three times larger—than she can support from her own resources, and that population lives, to an extent never before known in the history of the world, on imported food, paying for that food and raw material with goods made .and sold abroad, and by ship-

ping, insurance, banking and other services. The Empire is young and vigorous, as well as under-populated—a vast and varied treasure house of wealth, only awaiting the men and the capital to unlock it. 'That is why leading business men in the Old Country look forward to the time when the necessary produce that is raised within the Empire will enter the ports of the United Kingdom and when the Overseas Dominions, recruited increasingly from British stock, will provide the steadiest of all markets for British goods. Thus is presented the spectacle on the one hand of teeming millions waiting to he fed, while on the other hand are large virgin spaces waiting to be populated and tilled. “We must,” said the president of the association, “do as Canning did a hundred years ago, call in the new world to redress the balance of the old. But the new world to-day is not America; it is the British Empire. We must call in the British Empire to make good the ravages of the war and the ruin—temporary it is hoped—of Europe.” The stability of Britain’s scheme of existence depends upon the smooth and uninterrupted functioning of a whole complex of economic processes not merely at Home, but all over the world. Britain cannot, in reason, expect any settled trade with the Continent for many years to come. She must therefore look for an equivalent within the Empire, where there exists every potentiality of agricultural and mineral wealth that Nature can bestow. With out doubt, trade recovery is the essential need to-day, but the recovery must be based on sound lines in order to reduce the cost of living and not to make large profits, although high taxation is mainly responsible for the increased prices of many commodities. The more prosperous the people of Britain become the better will it be for the producers in the Dominions. It may fairly be claimed that one of the causes which adversely affect the growth of trade arises from the unsatisfactory conditions of polities generally, and the failure of Governments to recognise the immense importance of consulting leading commercial and other business men when dealing with the great financial, commercial, and industrial problems which are continually arising. Until there is complete accord between polities, industry and finance it is hopeless to expect satisfactory progress. In the Chambers of Commerce the Government has a body of men who could and would be glad to give expert advice. Britain is setting an example in this respect that may well be followed by the Dominions. Greater production, trade recovery, and sound economy should go hand in hand.