ECONOMIC NATIONALISM.

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19459, 26 December 1934, Page 9

ECONOMIC NATIONALISM.

ENTAILS STAGNATION. BIG BLOW TO COMMERCE. It is perhaps in the economic fiehl liial Hie most startling paradoxes present themselves, said the hconomist (England). Behind I he monetary phenomena ot the depression lies Hie paradoxical fact Unit in a world in which eeonomio intercourse, lias been i growing easier every day, the nations I for 15 years have been creating and , bolstering up a system of economic I nationalism which lias thrown the world's economic structure out of i gear and struck an almost mortal j blow at international commerce. . . . Great Britain in recent years has I begun lo imitate Mils had example, ; and has thereby dealt • yet another i blow at Hie international investment | of capital which in Hie past played so- : large a pari in raising Hie level of j world activity and in bringing pros- ! perily lo her own workshops. 111- ! deed, conlrarv to Hie interest of our 1 large industrial population, Hie Goj vernmenl —or al least some members I of it—appear to have adopted in its j extremist form I he doctrine which lias | brought Hie world In ils present pass, j Ensuring Maximum Harm. ! In order lo foster British agricul- ! lure wc arc deliberately increasing the ! home production of articles of common j consumption of which Micro is alr<\aj\ j a world glut; and in order to ensure .■(si

that the maximum harm is done we are achieving this, not by subsidy, but by measures which will raise relative prioes, and thus ensure a diminution of consumption. This policy of agricultural protection is being initiated without any clear conception of the future economic position of the country as a whole; ail that matters apparently is that, whatever tiie cost to our nranufacluring industries, British agriculture must be expanded. That this is the definite policy in the mind of the Government seems to he proved by recent correspondence between Great Britain and New Zealand, in which our most distant Dominion inquired whether it could count on Hie continuance of free entry into the British market if it offered in exchange a practically free market for our manufactures. Ordinary mortals would naturally assume that it would he of great advantage to employment in ibis country, lo say nothing of the help to British shipping, to have accepted such a proposition, and, indeed, to accept similar propositions • from any quarter of the world. But Ibis would not suit Hie present conceptions of the Minister of Agriculture, who lias made no secret of the I fact that lie desires as soon as possible to be rid of the undertakings we made at Ottawa to admit freely the products of the Empire; and an evasive answer was therefore returned. Whither Wending? If this is lo be our altitude towards Hie Empire, says Hie Economist, it in not lu he expected that any serious advance will lie made by Ibis counlrj toward foreign countries. But in that

case the country is entitled to know whither it is being led. That the demobilisation of labour, the jettisoning of fixed capital and acquired skill, and the abandonment of commercial goodwill involved in the permanent curtailment of our export trades will be costly, and will involve for this country a lower standard of living than would otherwise obtain, is obvious. Tiie policy of self-sufficiency is one which must lead to conflict between town and country, and to friction with j the countries of tiie Empire and with 1 foreign countries. What has the new | economic planning lo offer in compensation for all this?