Evening Post

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1933, Page 6

Evening Post.

Argentina was probably as deeply interested in the Ottawa Conference as any other foreign country, but though her beef trade is very largely financed by British capital and finds Us chief outlet at the British market, she had as a foreign State no status at Ottawa, and the result was a bitter disappointment. Speaking, as, it is pleasant to read, partly in Spanish, the-Prince of Wales, who had'learnt the language for the purposes of his highly successful mission, to the Argentine two years ago, administered what comfort, he could to; the representatives of that country at the Argentine Club dinner on Friday. ' Argentina's future, said the Prince, was tied up with the question of beef, ana the future of be«f may be entirely dependent on tho British market, which Argentina required, while Britain wanted security of investments and an increasing market for goods. There was prima facie a good case for, strengthening the bonds of trade between two countries already so closely and happily related, and though at Ottawa the Empire had to •come first,the Prince o£ Wales Was constrained to contend that the Argentine was not forgotten. . Tlie Prince denied that Britain had ignored Argentina's interests at Ottawa. The Ottawa agreements did not/preclude negotiations with other countries, and Argentina was one of the first countries with which Britain desired to negotiate. . ' It is certain that the interests of Argentina were not ignored by Britain at Ottawa-. But they were attacked by Mr. Bruce and others as inimical to 'those of the meatproducing Dominions, and what was described by an Australian Press Agency as the "great meat war"' resulted in Britain's conceding to those Dominions . a strong- preference over Argentina. Though, as Mr. Coates has told us; thY, glories of Mr. Bruce's "meat war" were grossly exaggerated in our reports, it is not surprising that Mr. Baldwin and his colleagues were ' not easily convinced. The wonder rather is that they allowed themselves to be forced to a conclusion which- less biased critics, than Lord Snowden and Sir Herbert Samuel have found it impossible to reconcile with the principle laid down by Mr. Baldwin in his opening address at Ottawa; "Clearing the channels of trade among ourselves" and promoting commerce within' the Empire were declared 'by him to be the objects in view. . There are two ways in which increased preference can lie given, said Mr. Baldwin, either by lowering barriers among ourselves, or by raising them against others. . . .We should endeavour to follow the first rather than the second course. For, however great our resources, we cannot isolate ourselves from the world. No nation or group of nations, however wealthy and populous, can maintain prosperity in a world where depression and impoverishment reign. To this ideal, said Mr., Coates when he submitted New Zealand's Ottawa Agreement to the House of Representatives, every Dominion delegation subscribed. Loyalty to its spirit, he added, re- ] quires that we shall proceed by way of removing barriers to trade —barriers and hindrances which are so largely responsible for common impoverishment in a- world abounding with the means of plenty. We do riot quite understand how Mr. Coates—the vagaries of Mr. Bruce are less surprising—was able to reconcile with this spirit the request for duties against foreign meat, but they were relieved from responsibility by the British delegation's rejection of the request. That delegation, however, made the counteroffer of a scheme which seems to us equally incompatible with the principle laid down by Mr. Baldwin, but was probably preferred by his delegation'as less likely to serve as a red rag to the prejudice against food taxes which is still strong in Britain. Under this proposal, which is now incorporated in the Ottawa Agreements, Australia gets the benefit for her beef and New Zealand for her mutton and lamb of the reduction of Britain's imports of foreign meat by ratios rising from 10 per cent, during the current quarter to 35 per cent, during the quarter ending on June 30, 1934, and remaining at that figure till the end of the five years' term covered by the Agreements. The desperate condition both of the Home producers—in whose1 interests alone • Mr. Coates says the British Government was prepared to move —and of the Dominion producers is, of course, beyond dispute. But hard cases are, of course, the very things that test wise rules, and whether the breach was' justified 'or not, it has made trouble between Britain and some of her best customers, and it may: embarrass her at the World Economic Conference, for which Ottawa was intended to prepare the way. The details of policy were, of course, beyond the province of the Prince of Wales, but in his speech at the Argentine dinner he did all that kind words could do. Argen-

.tine interests are so closely associated with British interests that, as we have said, they cannot have been overlooked by the British delegation at Ottawa, and they have doubtless cost the British Government a good deal of anxious thought since. But there would be much less cause for anxiety if it could be sure that the Prince's words of comfort covered the whole ground. ' In what way, ho asked, «an our prosperity—prosperity of one of tho greatest markets in tho world—be bad for other people? How can it be other than good for the Argentine? And how can the Argentine fail to benefit from measures taken not to injure tho world's meat industry, but to improve it t In the long run and to a certain extent this argument from the general prosperity will apply, but it is the immediate consequences that impress its all most deeply in, a time of trouble. The cut ;in Argentina's chief export to her best taarket is already 10 percent, and by July 1, 1934, it will lte 35 per cent. Can Mr. Runciman, 'who at the dinner had, like.the Prince of Wales, to confine himself to generalities, expect to persuade the Argentine Special Mission that its country's share in Ottawa's contribution to the prosperity of the world will more than balance the present loss of 15 per cent, in its meat export to Britain, and of the 35 per cent. *that will follow? For the sake of both parties we trust that the President of the Board of Trade.will have more solid comfort to offer.