GREAT BRITAIN AND HER DOMINIONS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 117, 3 June 1937, Page 4

GREAT BRITAIN AND HER DOMINIONS.

Into the London discussions on intra-Imperial trade now in progress the concurrent negotiations for an Anglo-American reciprociai trading agreement must neeessarily enter pretty largely. On this point one o£ yesterday's messages said it was understood that "New Zealand WOtlld not agree to any proposals if they threaten to reduce her saies to Britain while simultaneotisly increasing American saies to Britain." It is perhaps not altogether fair to judge oiA* Prime Minister and his Minister of Marketing on a statement so brief and so naked, but, thus baldly put, the attitude adopted would appear to be rather stiff and one-eyed. It can, of course, be well appreciated that both Mr. Savage and Mr. Nash will seek to make the best arrangement possible in the interests of their own country s producers. That will no doubt be expected of them in the Old Country as well as here, for the oversea dominions are already recognised there as being beggars of the sturdiest kind, with their own interests well in the forefront of all their representations. At the same time, however, it will doubtless also be expected of them that they will realise that the expansion of Great Britain's foreign trade is essential to the industrial prosperity there which pfovides the purchasing power to pay for our exports* Thdffe they have no illusions with regard to providing such power either by the gratuitous issue of State paper money or by hook entries in a State-controlled Reserve Bank. Taught by long experience, for them the only goilnd' foundation for revived and permanent prosperity lies in increasing production of saleable wares and in finding profitable markets for thenx. For Great Britainj as fof ourselves, those markets have to be sought abroad, aiid they Can be seCiired only by a broad system of give and takc. British econoraists have consistently warned us that industrial fevival there has so far resulted in the main from an improvefflent in internal trade and that it caniLOt go much further^ or even be mamtained, uriless there is a corresponding improVement in the external. For that they must look not to the limited denland from the sparse population of the oversea dominions, but to the closely packed millions of other countries. Thus, even While haVilig the strongest desire and realiS". ing the need td foster the production and trade oi the dominions, they are,$. perfoi'ce of circumstances and in the interests of therAselves and of the Empire as a whole, hound to have regard for their foreign trade. This Wbuld seem to be an aspect of the position of which our Ministers now in London lose sight when, as reported, they appear to attempt an insistence upon respeCt for Kew- Zealand 's claims on the British inarket, nd matter how that may affect Great Britain's efforts to reCOVer her own markets elsewhere. There are, too, even higgfer cofisiderations than these to be taken into account. It is ndw pretty* generally admitted by thinking folk that the restoration of real peaee to the world and its preservation depend greatly upon the restoration of something like the old f reedom iii the w orld s trade. Even Americaj who has so long, pursued a policy of hightariff protection of her own markets for her own producers, has fortunately wakened up to this fact. She has now expressed her readiness to co-operate with Great Britain in initiating plans for hreaking down trade harriers such as may be hoped to spread to other countries now entirely ohsessed with the idea of creating conditions of self-sufficiency — a goal that is practically unattainable by any of them. If these plans are to succeed there must almost neeessarily be some elemertt of concession on the part of the dominions as well as of Great Britain herself. Their reward will come from new openings thus made for receipt of their products. THE GEORGE V. MEMORIAL. Tlxe Mayor and tke people of Hastings af6 to be congratiilated on the very eordial response to the appeal miade for subscxiptions to the TTi'ng George V. Memoriial Fund. Including yesterday's "flag" colletftion, which in itself was a marked success, the subscriptions for the Borough have reached a total of some £845, this being more than double the "quota" of £408 which the Government had assigiied td it. This is a really fine record and must be especially gratifying to Mr. Maddison and all those who kaV6 with hxm thrown themselves so enthusiastically into the scheme. It is doubly gratifying, too, that this handsome total is in xio small measure due to the large nuiaber of small subscriptions receivCd, thus showing how many not ovef-full pockets have been touched through the heart. AS to the iineness of the object in view there can be no possible quesfcion, nor as to its being entirely appropriate as a tribute to the wellloved Sovereign whose memory it is designed to perpetuate. In him we had one in whose regard the Children Of the vast Empire over which he presided over held a very forward place, so that there is no possible doubt as to the purpose to which this ftind is to be put being one that would in life have been entirely acceptable to him. It was, indeed, a} happy thought on the part of our Government to give the memorial such a fitting form. The Government itself is to eontribute an assured sum of £25,000 to the fund and is to further subsidise all other subscriptions abovC an aggregate of a like amount. As the reports from other centres show something of a like response to the proposal, there is every prospect that thv fund will reaeh something substantially in excess of the £50,000 originally aimed at. • Thus the scheme will start under the happxest of auspices so far" as finance is concerned and with every prospect of fulfilling its beneficent purpose. Again, congratulations to the Mayor and his helpers.