DOOM OF FREE TRADE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 82, 31 December 1917, Page 6

DOOM OF FREE TRADE

IMPERIAL TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS LECTURE BY MR. F. M, B. FISHER The Hon. l'\ M. B. Fisher, ex-Miuis-ter of Marino and Customs for New Zealand, recently delivered a lecture on "Imperial Trade and Industrial Problems" in Belfast, under tho auspices of the British Empire Producers' Organisation. , The chairman (Mr. H. M. Pollock, president of the Chamber of Commerce) said he esteemed it as not the least'of his privileges as president of the Chamber of Commerce that he should be permitted to occupy the chair that night and to assist them in offering a welcome to the distinguished man whom they had come to hear. On that fateful day in August, 1914, when the whole world seemed rocking and swaying and no stable element could he found anywhere, a notable band of Imperial statesmen who wero on the very fringe of the Empiro, seeing from a distance those tremendous happenings, and seeing the Motherland in travail, wired across the seas: "We stand by the Motherland; with her we live or with her we die.'' (Applause.) the action of those men saved that great confederation of nations and peoples that was called the British Empire from disintegration. Of that .there could be no doubt. The man who would address them from that platform was ono of that proud band. Mr. Fisher was there in the interests of the British Empire Union and under the auspice of the British Empiro Producers' Organisation. One of the conditions of membership of the British Empire Union was that every man, and especially every woman connected with it should sign an undertaking that under no circumstances should ho or she purchase anv goods of enemy origin for a stated period after tho war. (Applause.) If every man and woman in the Empire ioined the union and entered into that obligation lie apprehended that no further difficulty need be expected; but time was short and memories were short, and he submitted to them that there was only one effective way of facing an embargo on German goods., and that was by a tarift wall so high that no German dog, no matter, how agile he might be, could inmp it. Tliev must not run away with the idea that the forces ranged against the obiects of the British Empire Union were negligible. They heard of the hidden hand, and there were wen of British blood who were not ashamed to talk of resuming commercial relations with Germany, as if nothing had happened in the meantime. (' bhamel ) Onlv last month an eminent statistician wrote in a reputable organ suggesting that they could not do without the 1A) millions of German trade, hut he md not tell his readers that eighty millions of that German trade represented imports of manufactured articles, every one of which could be manufactured .m Great Britain and give employment to hundreds of thousands of workers. Nor did he tell them that the forty nv'linns of- our exports to Germany consisted almost entirely of raw materials, and largely of superior Welsh coal. He (the speaker) thought thev would agree with Mr. Masse when he said that the forty millions of difference between the exports and imports in favour of Germany were just a present made to Germany to enable her to' build battleships for this nountry's undoing. (Applause.)

( Mr. F. M.'b. Fisher's Address. Mr. Fisher, who was received with applause, said his purpose m visiting Belfast had in a senso been accomplished, because the main object with which he set out had been brought to a fruitful and satisfactory ending, and ho was glad to bo able to say that the Belfast Linen Merchants' Association had decided to affiliate with the British Empire Producers" Organisation, and to take its part, shoulder to shoulder with other industries, in the determined attack which they wore going to make on enemy trado after the war. (Hear, hear.) Proceeding, the speaker said the aims of the British fcmpire Producers' Organisation and tho British Empire Union were similar. llie organisation he represented stood or tho association of the industries of tins country, while the British Umpire Union worked through the individuals in. the community. Ho wanted them to support British industry and the Britisher worker, and he also wanted them to utilise the raw materials which the Empire was capable of producing and to join an organisation which stood for what colonials would call the regeneration of the United Kingdom and tho extinction of the influence of the foreigner. (Applause.) Ho could not understand any more now than he could when ho was in his own country how any self-respecting Englishman could be content to see foreigners comin" into the United Kingdom and buyin" hereditary legislative *iehts. Hny did they put up with that P They put up with" it because they had become infected with the bacilli of apathy, because they did not care, because they felt that'the political machine was m the hands of an Tuner circle of which thev could not become members.- It was now for the people of the United Kingdom to speak with a decisive voice on the future administration of tho Empire, and when' they found that there was interposed between them and, progress two parties who were so m-1 tent at gazing at each other that tliej could not see anything else it was t.me for them to say that there must be a change. If the old parties would notj alter their methods of administering the attaire of the country they must make way for those who would reflect the determination and the progress, of the people. (Applause.) He was going to ask them to listen to a new exposition of the theory of empire as it. appealed to him. His impression was that the origin of empire was really m men's hearts, not in their minds.

Not a Mental Calculation. It was not a mental calculation, it was not merely the product of reason; it was something stronger, higher, and better. It was a spirit, it was blood, bone, fibre, everything that accounted for the feeling which existed between men who loved one another. _ they could never take this thing which was called Empire and circumscribe it. it had no limits; it lived in the hearts of men, and any attempt of a party or a Parliament or nation to destroy that spirit must inevitably fail, because the lnve of the Overseas Dominions tor the Mother Country was something which was indestructible. Jhe Dominions did not begrudge the men, money, and ships they had given to the Empire, but they thought that in return they nad a rMit to ask the Mother Country altei tlio war not to put them back on the same footing as beforc-on ho sa.no level with the Germans. (A] pla iso.) Let him put this question to the l'rccT r j,dci—Was he prepared to put tie Dominions on the. same level as the Gorman-;'-' If not, was he going to abandon Free Trade? lie had got to do one thing or the other. ' llw old shibboleths, the old traditions, and the old landmarks had been wiped out by tho war, and the minds of men had been filled with new ideas. , J-hey wanted new measures, new men, more virility, less apathy, progress, prestige, -ind development, and they wanted to leave behind them a better Lnipu-o for their children. The lecturer wont on to say that they could never have a great' Imperialism until they had a

contented population. They must give the working classes good wages, jobs worth having good homes, and a country worth fighting for, and they must begin their task on behalf of the ! Empire by getting at tho children. This task'was one for tho business man .as much as for any other member of tho community. Tho' business man camo into contact with inefficiency, will] the unhappy conditions under which the working-classes lived, and he could not appeal to the Government ell'ectively unless he bound himself to the trade he represented. , That whs why the British Empiro Producers' Organisation was trying to get the various trades of the country to unite—partly in order that they might help to framo tariffs where necessary, bounties whoro necessary, and bonuses where theso wero required. But business men must realise that they had a duty to tho State, and it was not enough that they should go on without making an effort until tho nation whs in trouble. Tho feeling of the working man was that ho had been brought into the world with a right to livo and a right to work, .and it was in the interests of tho State that his aspirations should be realised. Trado should not be treated as a party issue. Trade was the life-blood of tho Empire. It carried its ramifications to tho uttermost boundb of tho Empiro, it developed the Empire's resources, and it maintained the population. If they wanted something to wrangle about as between party and party they should, choose anything hut trade. Do not put the penalty on trade of making it a suppressed subject which could only bo unearthed at the cost of a faction light. Tho overseas Dominions wanted to get alongside tho Mother Country in this matter. They had offered a preference for the past twenty-five years, hut their offer had not been listened to. If a mail in Now Zealand wanted to buy any article of German mako he had to pay 33 1-3 per cent, moro than he would if he selected a similar article of British manufacture. In the United Kingdom, however, the German had hitherto been allowed to compete with the Britisher on equal terms. After the war they must make sure that this condition of things ceased to exist. (Applause.) '