ALL FOR EMPIRE LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2699, 19 February 1916, Page 10

ALL FOR EMPIRE LEAGUE

■i^JFTpKAMPAST" NATURALISATION OF ALIENS DENOUNCED .

'IThat this meeting of members ! of the ..Wellington Commercial Travellers ' and ' Warehousemen's j"; 'Association . cordially: endorses tho action taken by. the delegates at the conference of the United Travellers ; and AVarehpusemen's Associations j lield in Chris'tchnrcß on -February I 10; and approves -of •the formation .'■of'.the AH For Empiro League, as outlined in tho Empire Leaflet . No. . lj now before the meeting, feeling !: sure that the best interests of the !v' country and the Empire necessitate '. the elimination of enemy trade ■ ■ and influence from our midst.- The meeting pledges itself, therefore, TO use every possible endeavour in furthering the objects of the league and uudertaking to heartily sup- : port any representative committee : fhat may be set up to take chargo . of tlie movement.

" :• . The abovo resolution wais adopted at ' 1. meeting hcld ; as indicated, yesterday i at the association's club rooms in Vici ifoiria Street, at which Mr. W. J. Brid--1 )jon presided. The chairman said that he did not ; £now why Austria, as well as Germany ! not bo included in the movement : <io keep out German goods.. Ho took it l£hey were a body of business men. Mr. < fCa'rnegie, who made his money in Amer--1 |ic'a, had said that trade did not follow : jthe flag, it followed prices current.. iMr. Bridson held that trado would follow the flag, and not prices current, : lif flhai flag had sense. Tho flag meant : 'the, people. ' If the nation saw that those who, managed its political affairs I moved in the right direction, then trade ; wouliT follow the flag. In the Domin- . j ions, preference to British goods : had ' j; been instituted'; , yet when: a wireless I system., was set np in New Zealand, a ' j German one was used, and, tho speaker , ' be*:eve<l, ■ a German had to be put-in 'iharge-"of it. He hoped such a thing i |Woiiid newjr occur-again. -We could- ; 1 only- speak', of the period .before this war, - ,as the age of toleration on the part of : i the British. There were-members of : (the cbb';'at the front fighting for their 1 j country:;and for the British race; . and : , the members who" were still' : carrying , .Jon* trade intended to sell only British ; -goods. ..- It- should be the aim of New -Zealandsrs and Australians to make the ! /iSouthem Pacific all British/ Freedom .- j of tradejin these-waters was our right. ) 'The competition which' had hampered iis had been rooted out, and it should be the object of the_ people of these lands to soc-.-iliat ifc<was uofe-allowed to grow up again. Mr'. Bridlon" moved tho adoration of the above resolution, j .Mr. G. Pirie, in seconding the motion, said that there was going to be, in the: near future, ail economic fight

RESOLUTION OF COMMERCIAL .TRAVELLERS ' \

which might he as great as the present conflict. The British, in Napoleonic times, were leading in all manufactures. They had the ships to carry their merchandise to the ports of the world, and they had practically no competition until the year..lß7o. After tho Franco-Ger-man War, the Germans, with the huge indemnity paid by France, were able to set , their industries 'going, and they had never stopped. The courage and determination of the Germans in this direction had eclipsed the ' British entirely. Tho British Empire, by allowing .itself to be made the dumpingground of German goods, had been fostering the . industries of Germany. Free-trade would be all right if it was made world-wide. But it, did not benefit a country when, other lands built barriers to keep her merchandise out. Britain must erect a barrier to shut ant enemy goods: One reason why Germany had pushed , her • trade was that she kept up to date in designing .new fashions and articles which she knew that peoplo wanted. The okltimo manufacturers of Britain were stalwart workers and thinkers. There were none, like tbom, and they prospered. But each succeeding generation showed a falling-off. The present generation did not collaborate with their workers in keeping up to date, as their forefathers did. So tho Empire's trade had lost ground. Aliens in the Public Service. . The employment of aliens in tho Public Service, and in other departments.of intelligence, was a mistake j it was a, slur on,the British people to give aliens preference, in such posts of trust. '' Mr. W. Duthie said there-was a~movo among certain business people of New Zealand, rfio might bo British, but cculd hardly be called British, to secure a relaxation of the preferential duties in force .in this country. • They had. asked the Government to relate the duty on certain lines of American goods and allow them to,come in as British. ,To do this would be un-British. "If we cannot get the British goods, then for God's sake let us go short of the goods," said Mr. Dutliie, amid applause. ■ To-day it was tho duty of everyone to obtain all goods within the Empire. As an association, they should show New Zealand and the Empiro ajid the world that New Zealanders were only too willing to 'do all they could to uphold the idea of-supporting British industrie's. It would moan pay, pay, pay. but those who could not shoulder a rifle to go to the front must bear their share at home. Mr. F. W. Manton recognised that the time had arrived to do more than

subscribe.to patriotic funds. In starting the league, which was a non-poli-tical bod}', they were putting forward an idea which should interest 1 every man and woman 111 Now Zealand. By supporting the Empire's goods, thoy would be materially assisting in providing adequate employment for our soldiers when'they returned. "Remember,"- said Mr. Manton, "when either selling or buying goods, to be British, and remember what was done in August, J 314, by our enemies." Ho referred to Clause 6 in the league's leaflet regarding the "most favoured nation treatment" between Now Zealand and Britain's Allies in the present war. Undesirable Enemy Citizens. Mr. E. A. James said they were all agreed that they wanted to stamp out enemy trade. Another equally great object was the stamping out of undesirable citizens. This war dated, not from August, 1914, but much further back, when Germany began her underhand methods of wresting trado from England. After the present war would be a war of commerce, just such a war as Germany had been waging against us for many years. ' We wanted a clean, loyal citizenship in Now Zealand; but we could never obtain this while aliens were allowed to sign papers and ssoar oaths of allegiance to the Crown. 'Under Gorman law,' a German who became a naturalised citizen of another country retained, his German citizenship, and not oftly that, but his children, who had never seen Germany, were also German citizens. Thus there wore „in America somo hundreds of thousands of Germans who owed no allegiance to A.merica. because they were German citizens. ' The resolution was carried by acclamation.