BRITAIN’S FISCAL POLICY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20182, 26 June 1928, Page 6

BRITAIN’S FISCAL POLICY

MJ’HE PRESENT crazy system of so-called free trade, which

in practice means that we give the free run of our great market to foreign nations without retaining any weapons to retaliate when they treat our manufactures unfairly, makes Great Britain’s trade policy the laughing stock of all competing nations.”

With this emphatic declaration Messrs W. Weddell and Co. have -published a supplement to their annual review of the frozen meat trade, appealing for an active campaign, in view of the general election next year, for the extension of the safeguarding duties and the stimulation of Empire trade by means of preference or otherwise. The very fact that such a pamphlet should be issued by a British business firm is striking evidence of the modification of opinion in Britain on this subject. In the course of the pamphlet Messrs Weddel declare that “the great outstanding reason for the deplorable condition of many of Britain’s manufacturing districts to-day is the unfair tariffs of the principal foreign nations of the world against our manufactures. If it had not been for the activities of our forefathers in acquiring our overseas Dominions, which to-day take one-third of our total exports, and do 56 per cent, of our trade, this crazy one-sided system of foreign trade would have produced such a state of unemployment in Great Britain that it would have broken down completely many years ago, and it is only the affection and loyalty of our colonies that has enabled the system to be maintained at all—through their huge purchases of British goods.”