BRITAIN'S ECONOMIC POLICY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 285, 28 August 1919, Page 5

BRITAIN'S ECONOMIC POLICY

MR; HUGHES ASKS QUESTIONS

URGENT PLEA FOR DEFINITE

PROGRAMME

Eeplying to the toast of his health at a farewell luncheon given in his hoh- 1 our by the Empire Producers' Assooi--tion, Mr. W. M.'Hughes, Prime Ministor of Australia, delivered an urgent aypeal for a definite policy and programme of ( Imperial economic development. "When I had the honour of spoakiiifi before this association, in I9IG and 1918," he said, "I set out the position as I saw it, and I think as the great bulk of the peoples of these islands and throughout the Empire recognised it to be. I reminded you of the greatness of our heritage, of the unrivalled potentialities of this great Empire, of its abundance of nearly all those raw materials which the modern industrial world demands, and without which not only the prosperity but the very existence of Britain as n, great manufacturing and trading nation absolutely depends. And then I asked a question which, unhappily, could only., be answered in one way. Into whose hands had passed the control of these things—not only of our ran* materials, but also largely of our manufacture and trade and finance? As Herr Zimmermann, the German publicist, stated during the war, Germany had climbed to greatness by,--means of England's policy of the 'open door.' (Cheers.). Let me quote his own words: 'We are sojourners in England's house, paying guests of the Anglo-Saxons. The secret of our success lies, apart from our orsan. isation and the training of our working classes, in- the fact that England and the countries which are the great producers .of raw materials granted us an open door, allowed us to draw on their vast reservoirs of raw material. If this permission is withdrawn.'we shall be at on.e stroke once more the Germany of 1880. 'Our dependence on the AngloSaxon was so great that it is no exaggeration to say that our system of Protection was only possible because the Anglo-Saxon put at our disposal their fields of cheap production across the sen.' But, says Herr Zimmermann, thev did more. 'They gave admission to our merchants, trade agents, commercial establishments, everywhere in their broad domains, looked kindly on them, as long as they were modest* and thereby they assisted' materially to open markets for our industrial products.' We know what this policy did for Germany, and we know, too, what it did for Britain and the Empire. ' (Hear, hear.) The question we have to ask ourselves to-day is. are we going back to this policy that so nearly destroyed us and so nearly gave Germany mastery of the world—that would most certainly have given her complete mastery had she been content to but rely upon it a few years longer? If we are not going back to this policy, .what is our policy to be? What is it to to-day? Our Economic Polic)'. "What is Britain's economic policy? What is tho Empire's economic.policy? Questions easy to ask, but hard' tc ai.swer. Yet surely the time has come when an answer should lie forthcoming. When we scan tlio economic heavens for a sign, what do we see Are we to accept as an omen of tho dawning of a new day the adoption of the prmcipla of Imperial preference. Is this grain of mustard seed destined to gTow into a mighty, tree, beneath whose sheltering foliage the peoples of our- Empire shall Jmd protection and comfort? It' may lie so, but one could wish for something far wider and more definito. policy—(cheers)— and, 1 will not say a bolder, but a dearer and more definite indication of the basis upon whicli the future economic policy of Britain is to rest. (Cheers.) The war lias created conditions which, I see them, can only be dealt with by organisation. Even those who desire the status quo ante and deny the necessity for any change, holding it indeed to be an evil thing* will surely admit that there- should be certitude that manufacturers and traders should bo told plainly what is to be done. Nations, like men, can adapt themselves to almost any c'on_dition3 aa long as they are stable, but uncertainty, instability' are fatal.. (Hear, hear.) British manufacturers, if they are to hold their own under tho crushing burden of war debt, the* increased .cost of material .and labour, must 'havo a settled policy to wliith they can adapt themselves, and they must know where they are. (Cheers.) Wo must know, too, to what exteat, if at all, the Peace Treaty limits our scope of action, to what extent, if at all, it makes for tho re-establishment of tho condition that existed before the war. (Hear, hear.)

The Fruits of Inaction. •"When speaking last year I said that 'if geace comes and nds us unprepared to deal with, tho complex and difficult problems that it will bring in its train as we were unprepared for those of war, then will our last state be worse than ■the first, and this great nation, slowly it may bo, but nevertheless most surely, will be pushed from its place amongst the great nations of tho earth, its commerce and trade will shrink, its industrial life wither, the men who fought so heroically for us will return to a land of industrial stagnation and chaos.' Well, peace in tho senso I spoke of has come. Victory, complete, overwhelming, has crowned the arms of the Allies. Did it find us any better prepared than did war? ("No/") There can only be one answer to such a question. Do not the consequences of unpreparedness of which I spoke meet out eyea on every hand? We see around us ohaos where there should be order, unemployment, industrial unrest, going to tho veay root of things and aggravated a hundred times by the lack of a definite policy upon which could be erected that organisation which w?9 and is so obviously necessary. (Loud cheers.) .Complete collapse is only avoided by resort to disastrous expedients. The nation is still for the most part living on. ita capital, and like a man living by sucking his. own blood, tho end is easy to foresee-. Of course, after such a war confusion to sioano extent was inevitable, and things may get better as time goes on. But how are the manufacturers of Britain to know what they are to do in the absence of . some definite assurance of what the policy of 'Britain is to be? How aro the Oversea Dominions to know where they'are to took for markets for those raw materials necessary -for the manufacturers of Britain? Is trade to blow whore it listoth as it did beforo the war, tho homo market of Britain being expioited by Germany and other countries? ("No.") Aro Germans, helped or not by tho Treaty, to to ponnittod to carry, on trade in this country as they did beforo tho war, either under their own names or under some guiso more or less transparent? If so, then nothing is morn certain than that in a comparatively short period of time Germany will again creep back into her old position —(hear, hear)—and the war, with all its horrors, all its trials and sacrifices, will have been fought almost in vain. Some credulous persons, and some very dangerous ones, tell us' that aJll is changed in Germany; that the thrones of tho mighty have been overturned, that where but yesterday tho proud and despotic Hohejzollerns reigned unchallenged and seemingly unchallengeable, Ebert, the paddler, a man of tho people, a Socialist, now rules. (Laughter.)'. But even if this change were permanent, even if it wero a change of tho and not from tho lips outward, oven if the spirit of the people of Germany wero for tho moment purged of militarism—which no ono but dwellers in ■ the cilouds believe—how will that profit us if Germany regains her economic hold of the resources and trade of the Empire and of the world? For the welfare of the great, mass of. tlin people depends mainly not upon political but economic conditions. (Cheer.?.)

Secure the Home Markets. "How can the Empire make for the men who saved it a place worthy of them if it has not control of its own trade and industry? The. workers demand, and rightly, their place in the sun, better wages, better conditions of labour. (Hear, hear.) But how are these things to bo assured unless the Empire has a policy which will ensure iTie development of its great resources in raw materials, ensure trade for its mercantile marine, and suoh control of its homo markets aa to

ensure employment for its own people? There are the homo markets and tho foreign markets; botli arc good, but tho foreign market without {lie homo market is liko a house built upon quicksands—it cannot endure. (Cheers.) That nation which has a policy which ensures its home markets for its own producers is best equipped for tho intense competition that will most certainly exist in the foreign markets. Organisation is essential to success In modern industry and commerce. Effective organisation is impossible without somo control of the homo markets. And Germany is still tho best organised country in the world. (Hear, hear.) "Nothing is more certain than that, unless a definite policy is adopted that will give British manufacturers a preference in the home mnrk'eta-(loud cheers)-niul to the overseas Dominions a larger market within the Envniro for their raw materials—not only will Imperial trade suffer but tho Empire itself tend to disintegrate. For tho surest tie is that of mutual self-interest. (Hear, hear.) The dominions must develop their great inlieritage and to this thev must find .regular and profitable markets for an ever-in-creasing supply of raw materials. AI-. ready there arc more ilian "15,000 of wiiite population in the overseas Dominions. In twenty-five years tho Dominions will havo a white population at least equal to that of Britain of that day. 'Is the Empire to endure, throughout the years to come, or are we to drift, apart? It would seem from tho utterances, or, at all events, from the attitude of somo people Til Britain, that tho Empire is only another name for Britain. I need hafdlv say that tills is a view the great Dominions do not share. (Hear, hear.) And it certainly is opposed to the obvious facts. An ecenonltc policy for Britain that doe? not recognise the facts of Empire will —it may be slowly, but, neverI theless, surely-destroy tho Empire.

At the Cross-Roads. "All things are now possible. We have come to the cross-roads. The passing hours are deciding the destiny of the Empire. Are these self-governing dominions inspired, as they now are, by a keen sense of' national 6entiment—born of the part thev have played in tho great war, to be bound to Britain»and to each other by ties of blood and traditions only, or ore we to have a great Imperial partnership in which the national and economic interests of each are conserved? Is Britain, to whom the' dominions owe so much, and by whose side they have fought and suffered in this great fight for liberty, going to adopt a policy truly Imperial in character, which will bind us < together, ensuring not only the prosperity of each one of the free nations that make -up this Empire, but the permanence of the Empire itself Are we to have a policy of Britain for'the British. Canada for ibe Canadians. Australia for the Australians, and the Empire for us all—(cheers)— forming a League of Nations ourselves, as well as being part of that greater League of Nations —which thev say is to be, but is not yet—or are we to go back to things as they were before the war—a policy that in fact, whatever it might be in name, was a policy of negation, of letting things alone, a noiicy of Britain and the Empire for the Germans, a policy dictated by Germnnv or by international finance. (Cheers.) Is Britain to be swept dean of every enemy interest, or is the voice of the so-called pacifist, or the defeatist, or the interests of Germany, or international finance to prevail? Theso are some of the questions to . which we all earnestly desire early answers." (Cheers.)