The Feilding Star. Oboua & Kiwitba Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1897. ANNEXATION AND TRADE

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 30, 4 August 1897, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oboua & Kiwitba Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1897. ANNEXATION AND TRADE

In a thoughtful aud truly liberal miiided article in the Nineteenth Centum, Mr Birchenough (vice-President of the Macclesfield Chamber of Commerce) on the subject of the Foreign Annexations and British Trade, after considering the relative positions of other Pluropeati countries as rivalt. concludes :— Our best markets are the markets of our own colonies and possessions. Per head of the population they take from us far more than any foreign colony. "Trade follows the flag." It is to our own kin across the seas that we must look for the great development of our trade in the future as it is to them we must look for the extension of our influence and growth of our power. But while we continue a national policy of expansion wherever we can, there is no reason why we should not rejoice in the fact that i here is satisfaction to be gathered from our transactions with the foreign states. The movement of foreign colonial expansion is far too powerful for us to arrest it, even if we would. Our interests come into conflict with those of foreign powers all over the world. 1 he tusk of British diplomacy has become infinitely more difficult during ths Jasfc twenty five years. Many parts of our Empire, which were then in safe isolation, now march with the possessions of European neighbours Questions now arise which were form erly undreamed of. Por their bappy soiution concessions have to be made aud compromises effected. Our statesmen are frequently compelled in the cou rse of negotiations to acknowledge and to gratify the colonial aspirations of foreign powers. As often as not they have in consequence to encounter the hostile criticisms of a nervous public and press in England. If anything is yielded to the French in Piam. " our interests are being sacrificed." If a bargain is struck with o.nother Power 'in Af rica " fertile regions are being ' lost to British trade." The writer admits that underneath these feelings lies the conviction, more or less justified by past history, that Great Britain would make better use of the territory in dispute, but this is a conviction we can hardly expect our rivals to share with us. It is just this grudging attitude towards the expansion of pur neighbours that gains for us the reputation of a grasping and a eel fish power. It is an attitude the British ought to frankly abandon. The exigencies of our woi'ld-wide policy demand and necessitate a more generous view of the colonial ventures of other powers. /So far the adoption of such a policy has been rendered difficult by the fear that our commercial interests might suffer. The practical experience of th« lat* u'feeen years goes to prove j ' that such fears are illusory. It Reaches

us plainly that foreign annexation does not carry with it the extinction of our trade. British enterprise is vigorous enough and British commerce has vitality enough to overstep any barriers that are likely to bo erected against them.