THIS “PROTECTION.”

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18944, 13 May 1933, Page 7

THIS “PROTECTION.”

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In every country .in the World the “protectionist” confreres of Mr Sykes are in power and everywhere destitution and misery walk the streets. In New Zealand people In the cities are dying of slow starvation, and the “protectionists" have arranged for the export of 25 per cent, of a season’s output in order to consolidate their wheat “racketeering." The Save the Children International Union reports that ohildren In Germany are extraordinarily voracious, and often beg bread at school, as they have none at home. (Note: The German “protectionists” have arranged that the price of wheat in Germany is double the world price—their New Zealand prototypes have done exactly the same thing here.) The German authorities state that the children are not stunted, as in war time, but their faces are pale and swollen. The Manchester Guardian attributes the Nazi hysteria to long privation. British health officers declare that “toddlers" are often grossly deformed. The mothers deny themselves In order to enable their husbands and older children to be better fed.

Mr Croft, the Canadian Trade Commissioner, speaking In Hamilton yesterday on his .return from a visit to Canada, stated that many Canadian wheat farmers had been “literally forced” into dairying. Why?—Simply because Mr Sykes and his associates have blocked Canadian wheat from coming to New Zealand, and have thus deliberately destroyed the Canadian market for New Zealand butter. I have already shown that the same •thing has been done by New Zealand as regards Australia; and when our only remaining market is England the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association—using tariffs to block English goods —has forced butter down to 70s per cwt. And Mr Sykes, faced with the charge that these Iniquities lie on his “protectionist” doorstep, says that he “simply will n<?t argue.” His reason hardly needs elaboration. —I am, eto„ DOUGLAS SEYMOUR. Hamilton, May 10, 1933.