NEED FOR A DEFINITE EMPIRE TRADE POLICY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2722, 17 March 1916, Page 5

NEED FOR A DEFINITE EMPIRE TRADE POLICY

COMMONWEALTH PRIME MINISTER'S VITALISING SPEECH \ By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. March 16, 10.30 p.m.) London, March 15. Mi-. 'W. M.'Huglies, the Federal Prime Minister, was entertained at dinner by the British jTmperial Council of Commerce, Lord Dosborough presiding, ; Mr. Huglies declared that tho war would decide whether force or law was to rule the world. After referring to the faot that British industry was honeycombed with German enterprise, and it was with difficulty cutting out 'tlie roots of the cancer, lie said:""We must not only destroy this, but- also build up Britain's post-war trado policy " • 'The British Empire did not consist of Britain alone, for the great overseas Dominions had vast territories to develop and great interests to consider. In a quarter of a century at the present rate of increase tlieir population would not be far short of that of Britain, and in half a century it would havo outstripped her. The Dominions desired to advance their great destinies hand in liand with each otlier and with Britain.

Britain's post-war policy was of vital importance to the Dominions. The details of that policy could not bo settled during the war, but to postpone the broad principles till after the war would make the possibility, of change of policy the remotest. Clashing interests had been harmonised, not only in Britain, but between the Dominions themselves, and the public mind was now plastic. The scales had fallen from their eyes, and they were able to distinguish the essentials from the trivialities. What ho was advocating was not_ merely a change in the fiscal policy, not necessarily tariff reform, though this would probably follow, but a fundamental change in the ideas of government. Tho wholo conceptioh of modern statesmanship reeded revision. England had been, and is,- the chief of the sinners. Germany to-day was the best organised nation in the world. Beforo tho -war she was-the only one. _ Britain must organise her trade in justice for her defence for the preservation of the world's peace and tho protection of tho weak from the strong.

Ho paid a tribute to France and' Britain's great efforts at organisation sinco the war. "We were crumbling to the edge of destruction when Mr. Lloyd George .took up the munitions question, and thanks to his Gargantuan labour we could now breathe easier. The British Navy saved us the awful gulf of destruction; in fact, saved the civilised-world. Such miracles would not repeat themselves. Let us take the solemn lesSon to heart, put aside all party and class doctrine without delay, devise an Empire policy covering every plmse of national, economic, and social life, and no longer pursue the policy of drift but set sail on a definite course." • ;'