The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1937 THE WAY TO ECONOMIC APPEASEMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20815, 25 August 1937, Page 8

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1937 THE WAY TO ECONOMIC APPEASEMENT.

Britain's amazing trade recovery without the aid of quack economic medicine and without the smashing of a system that has stood the test of a long succession of currency and financial crises, is all the more gratifying because of the part the leaders and people in the Homeland are destined to play in promoting the easier flow of international trade. It is therefore interesting to mention that in a “National Memorial on Peace and Economic Co-operation,” four hundred Britons demand a British initiative in favour of economic appeasement as offering the way of escape from the threat of war. These petitioners, who have addressed themselves to the Imperial Government, say they would call in economic effort to redress the balance weighed down by political failure. It is interesting to recall in this connection that Great Britain did not. resort to a general tariff from conviction, but because other countries left her no choice. Just as recently Great. Britain has been the last to resort to a policy of big armaments, so in 11)31, she had to provide herself with a tariff weapon to safeguard her industries against protected foreign competition. Similarly, and much against the grain, Britain has been compelled to come to the rescue of her shipping threatened by foreign subsidised shipping. Everyone who knows anything about Britain’s history knows that British temperament and British interests are against, exclusive economic nationalism. Britain cannot adopt a rigorously protectionist policy for foreign trade is accessary to her, and she is always bound to consider that vast majority of persons at Home who are primarily interested in buying as cheaply as possible. But Britain on her part has been forced to realise that if free trade does not mean freer international trade but merely freer opportunities for highly protectionist countries to exploit British markets, then the Imperial Government is bound to embark upon a policy that will safeguard her essential industries from destruction by the dumpers of other countries. But Britain has made it known to the world that she is willing to enter into negotiations to ease the economic pressure due to restricted international trade. Manifestly the time is not ripe for another general economic conference, but the time is certainly opportune for those nations which appreciate the advantages of co-operation to get together and invite those like-minded to come in, for much can lie done in the moulding of an economic policy that will create bonds of common interest and interdependence that will assist immeasurably to reduce the dangers of war.