BRITISH TRADE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 303, 18 September 1919, Page 6

BRITISH TRADE

STILL PARAMOUNT IN THE WORLD cnpDPioiw umpire LABOUR FALLACY EXPOSED Mr. S. W. B. M'Gregor, H.M. Trade Commissioner in Australia (whoso headquarters are in Melbourne), has arrived in Wellington in prosecution of a supervisory tour of New Zealand .during the absenco of Mr. R. W. Dalton in EngCand. Mr. M'Gregor is an optimist respecting British trade generally, and declines to bo influenced by the superficial abnormalities of.the times. "A lot of people hero appear to imagine that British trade is failing badly simply because British goods aro not coining to Australia and New Zealand as freely as they would liko to see, but they must not run away with the idea that England is quite dead as a manufacturing country," said Mr. M'Gregor. "As a mattor of fact," ho added, "England is doing a troniendoua trade, hampered and alii as eho is'by aftor-the-war disorganisation and when I say trade I mean overseas trade. The public is apt to forget that at her front door lio Northern Franco and Belgium, devastated countries which cry aloud for our goods, and which must be considered from a moral, point of view, oven before tho Dominions.

"What countries would you say did the biggest overseas trade in the world in 1918—tho last normal yqar? Invariably the answer is Germany or America. As a matter of fact England, did-the greatest trudc. Tho imports and exports of tho United Kingdom for 1918 wero valued ?t ; Germany's'were valued at .£1,002,000,000; and America was third; but what is astonishing'is to find that England's trade increased during the war. For the year 1917 (our worst year of tho war) tho value of our imports and expork was jei,G6O,SfIO,OOII, in 1918 .£1,848,000,000, and for six months of 1919 000." .■ It was suggested that a great proportion; of the import ralno might be represented by munitions of war, but Mr. M'Gregor stated that munitions were Vit included. F0037 however, represented roughly a half of tho total value of imports. , ■ ' So, Mr. M'Gregor points out, that it would be seen that British trade was. bigger than .ever it was before, and to those with an inside knowledge of England and her capacity, it would not he surprising if he ventured to say that the' Empire's trade in the future was going to exceed anything it had been in the past. There were difficulties—tremendous ijioulties—attetuient upon the almost complete disorganisation of England's, manufacturing army, but those would be . overcome, as the nnreet of war passed uway. Many thinkers at Home tnok the point of vioir that the prevailing unrest was _ really.n healthy .sign—it was tho growing pains of democracy. That, was to say that if the people hn&l been apathetic or listless after the war it would i:avo beon a bad sign nationally. "Peoplo in Australasia," said Mr. M'Gregor, "must exercise patience towards the British manufacturer, and give him time to reorganise, remembering that less than a year has elapsed sjneo hostilities ceased. I"havo every reason to Believe that reorganisation is proceeding rapidly, and that the time is not far off wTten tho British manufacturer will be aßlo to compete with his rivals more fnvouraWy than ni,nny other time, both as regards quality and price."

No Cut-throat Rivalry, Now that, the war had ended,. Mr. M'Gregor hoped that the old cut-throat rivalry in [world-trade would cease to exist. He took the view that there was enougli trado in tho world for evlsry nation, and there was no neM to talk of: the capturing of this or that country. It was a mistake to' emphasise legitimate trade rivalry as though the success of ono nation in the commercial field depended on ousting another nation from it. That sort of talk had in the past done an infinite.amount of mischief. It was the chief grievance alleged against Labour.. organisations that they sometimes limited their output, , upon tlie theory that there was only a limited amount of work to bo done, and it was to their interest to make it go as far ns possible, and secure as much remuneration as • possible.- Such a conception of industry and business was fundamentally wrong. There was no limit to the amount of work to be done, or tha amount of business.to be had, because there was no. limit'to the amount , of 'wealth that might be created from the resources of Nature or to the consumptive demands of the world's production. The problem of society everywhere was to organise more effectively, to cu-ordin. ate. ■ ...

Mr. it'Gregor is very keenly interested in tlie ideals of the British Engineering Standards Association, branche. 1 ; of which are beftlg formed throughout the world. There is already an Australian Associa. Ron, and an Australasian Association is on tiie point of beimr formed. He hopes to interest New Zealand in the adoption of engineering standards, which will mean a big economic saving within the Empire as far ns engineering projects are concerned. Tho primary object of standardisation was to secure interchangeability of parts, to cheapen rnana'facture by the elimination of waste of time and material, notably in producing «. multiplicity of designs for one and the same purpose, and to expedite delivery. . .