The Daily News FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1929. BRITISH TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1929, Page 8

The Daily News FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1929. BRITISH TRADE.

Judging from the remarks made by Mr. W. Graham (President of the Board of Trade in the British Labour Cabinet), when speaking at Edinburgh recently, it would seem that the new regime at Home finds that the process of placing the industries of the. Old Country on a succesful basis is far more difficult than when it was their metier to criticise the measures and policy pursued by the late Government. Mr. Graham asserted that one of the most difficult problems the present Government had to face was how to secure the drastic internal reorganisation which was required. The magnitude of this task is increased by the further problem of how to maintain peace in industry when the existing agreements begin to expire in December next. All the Labour Minister had to offer as a contribution towards a solution of the existing troubles was a “competent but expeditious review by the Government” —the form of which is not yet decided upon—as to existing conditions and their remedies, especially as to the cotton, iron and steel industries and their organisation. Some idea of the situation can be obtained. by an insight into the state of affairs in the Motherland during 1928, when one of the chief sources of national concern appeared to be amenable to no regimen prescribed for it by social physicians. For the first time in the history of modern England the country was confronted with depression grown inveterate in parts of the economic body which v ought to be most healthy if the whole could retain its health. Seldom before had such complete distress, '.mental and physical, enveloped populations so concentrated as those in the coal-mining areas of South Wales and North Eastern England. Here With close-lipped Patience 'for their only friends, Sad Patience, too near neighbour to despair—were town upon town, village upon village, subsisting wretchedly in compulsory idleness, without prospect of recovery, either immediate or distant, complete or partial. Behind that suffering lay many causes, among them being the war, the impoverishment and the competition of other countries, errors of policy on the side of Labour and of Capital at Home in a recent past, excessive overhead charges oh- industrial undertakings. But whatever the diagnosis, the disease, though confined in its immediate effects

to localities, was recognised as national and, as such, calling for as many remedies as could be brought to bear upon it, For immediate purposes there were appeals to charity, a great relief fund, supported by the Government, being opened; striken towns were “adopted” by others; experiment was made of transferring sufferers in affected areas to parts where work could be found for them; selected men wore sent to Canada as harvesters, in the hope that fresh openings might meet them there; a search, for virgin soil at Home was instituted on which to establish new industries; relief was given to industrial concerns to the extent of a remission of three-quarters of their local rates, such relief being extended in the case of agricultural land to the whole of the- rates (since agriculture proved to be as ill off as coal, and iron, and, in Lancashire, cotton) in the hope that by such a stroke as one of the root causes of distress a revival of industry, with consequent re-employment of the inactive, might ensue. It was recognised that concurrently with the operation of these palliatives there would have to be an increased determination among employers and employed to clear away obstacles in the path of mutual understanding; a growing sense that old methods of producing and selling goods, well enough for a past generation, were not now sufficient. It was felt that co-operation, rather than rivalry, among producers in particular industries must be the rule of the future, and a strenuous effort made, strongly backed by the Government, to look for new markets and outlets in the Dominions and colonies. Probably the new departure made by the Conservative Government in the direction of safeguarding certain key industries by means of Customs duties was the boldest stroke of all, but it played into the hands of .the Labour Party, and was made a burning question at the general election, -which resulted in the downfall of the Baldwin regime. What might have happened if the Conservatives had been given time and opportunity to develop their policy of protecting industries is, of course, open to argument. There can, however, be no question that if the Old Country is to suffer the effects of being a dumping ground for cheap foreign goods, the manufacture of such commodities being essential to the prosperity of Britain, then the present problems facing the country will take on a more sinister meaning in connection with Britain’s future. It is all very well to advocate rationalisation in industry, mass production, drastic reduction in costs of production, and other specifics of that kind, but there cannot be ignored the fact that it is the aim of the workers to obtain higher remuneration and to work less hours than previously. Mr. Graham does not appear to be optimistic over the chance -of solving Britain’s great problems. All the same, Labour has shouldered the burden and must go forward with the best possible means at its disposal.