FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1931. “SLAVE-PRODUCED TIMBER.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 144, 19 June 1931, Page 6

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1931. “SLAVE-PRODUCED TIMBER.”

A STORM of protest has arisen in Sydney at the arrival of a huge shipment of cedar from a Russian port, and the Merchants’ Association has appealed to the Government to arrest the policy of dumping on the ground that locally milled timber is unable to compete with Russian. It is as well to be on one’s guard against a hysterical view of Russia’s re-entry into the markets of the world, but at the same time there is evidence of a definite dumping policy which, unchecked, must have a disastrous effect on the possibilities of trade recovery, especially in countries like Australia. The disturbance necessarily caused in the markets of the world by Russia’s re-entry has been greatly aggravated by her commercial methods, and a bulletin just issued by the Bank of Finland says:—

Natural resources and the population have been exploited; the most accessible forest regions, for example, are terribly devastated by premature cutting. The consumption capacity of the masses is not only kept at an extremely low level, but forced labour is employed to a great extent. Thus, according to a despatch from Mr Walter Duranty to the “ New York Times” of February 2 last, there are at present in Russia about one million political exiles, of -whom perhaps 200,000 are in northern timber camps. The bulletin points out that the natural price mechanism of economic life is abolished, and prices are wholly artificial, because the Government is almost the sole buyer and obtains primary and secondary products by coercive measures, and sometimes prescribes intentionally low prices in order to provide other branches of State industry with cheap means of production. The bulletin points out that artificial prices, export premiums and trade monopoly enable any price prevailing on foreign markets to be deliberately cut. This represents a gift to the purchasers, as is always the case with dumping, but in the resulting confusion in world markets,. where calculations are based upon- rational economics and ordinary business methods, Russian dumping necessarily inflicts serious economic damage. After all the Australian timber merchants are not far wrong when they speak of “ slave-produced timber.”

THE NOISY AIR.

THE DECISION of the Post-master-General that advertising should not be permitted over the air seems to have been departed from to some extent in the announcement that the names of firms “ donating ” programmes to B stations may be given at the beginning and the end of the session. As there are thirty or more B stations, this concession seems to be the thin edge of a very unpleasant and very undesirable development in broadcasting, which nobody but the promoters of the stations would welcome.

WORK FOR 36,000 MEN.

THE REINSTATEMENT of the No. 5 unemployment relief scheme will provide work immediately for 36,000 men, and will tide over a period of suspended relief that would otherwise ensue pending the meeting of Parliament and the consideration of the financial difficulties that caused the stoppage. The Government’s position is most unenviable. Nobody could have anticipated the extent to which the army of unemployed would grow, and it may be that the existence of relief schemes has induced employers—not improperly in view of the difficulties of the situation—to discharge men who might otherwise have been kept off the labour market. The rationing of work which is proceeding in all directions lias mitigated the difficulties of the situation, and if it could be applied more generally greater resources would be available for the relief of acute distress. Unfortunately the Unemployment Board has not exercised much initiative in dealing with the depression from a practical point of view, and in pursuing a hand to mouth relief policy has paid no attention to the larger problem of providing productive work for a substantial number of those who cannot be carried by industry in its present state of disorganisation.