FREE TRADE DECLINE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1930, Page 16

FREE TRADE DECLINE

BRITAIN’S CHANGING VIEW

PROTECTION OF INDUSTRY.

“The days of free trade in Great Britain are' rapidly drawing to a close, a,nd. England is coming to realise that in protection of home industries combined with some: form of Empire preference lies the solution to many of her present difficulties,” said Mr. W. Jones, a former Mayor of Gloucester, and head of a large firm of carpet manufacturers, who is visiting New Zealand. The force of foreign, competition had become so great, Mr. Jones remarked yesterday, that England had to abandon old ideas and adapt herself to changed conditions. “Lord Beaverbrook’s Empire free trade scheme may be only, an ideal not capable of realisation,” said Mr. Jones, “but we must give him credit for rousing the public mind in England, to a consciousness of the potentialities of Empire. I am sure that fully 60 per cent, of the manufacturers in England to-day are in favour of some form of Empire preference, but charity begins at home and most of them urgently require protection on the home market. “British industry at present is labouring under a staggering burden, and it is difficult to see how conditions will improve unless something is found to replace the dole. Unemployment insurance does not deal effectively with. the problem of unemployment. The idea was all right at the beginning—everyone realised the necessity of seeing that men but of work should not be left to starve —but the whole scheme has now run riot. . ' ~ “The system not only demoralises the man who is drawing the dole by giving him money for nothing, hut it also has a most harmful effect on the. man who is in employment. It is possible for a man out of work to get within 10s or 15s of the wage of a man who is working, and a percentage of the workers do not see the necessity for putting their shoulders to the wheel and producing the maximum output when they could receive almost the same money for doing nothing at all. . “But the dole is not everything. In 1909, the cost of social services a head of population in England was Ss; today the cost is £3 18s 6d. In France the cost is 13s a head, in Belgium 5s 6d and in Italy 3s. All these countries are in competition with Great Britain and the higher figures in England are

almost a charge on industry. Th© overhead charge of the British manufacturer is so .heavy that he can hardly withstand the competition of foreigners who do not have to contend with the same heavy taxation.” Mr. Jones instanced, the case of his own trade. For some years Britain ,had exported steadily to the Dominions 700,000 square yards of carpets monthly. The -figure .had remained almost stationary, but the Continental exports had gradually increased, and were 1 now greater than those from Britain. “British manufacturers are urgently in need of protection,” Mr. Jones said. “If this could be given to them so that they could once again gain control of the home market they would only be too ready to support a scheme of Empire preference. They realise that' the Dominions can become their most valuable export markets, and they are only too willing to give preference to primary products from the various parts of the Empire in return for an /assured market for their manufactured goods.”