The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) FRIDAY, JUNE 22nd, 1923.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1923, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) FRIDAY, JUNE 22nd, 1923.

BRITTSII TRADE INTERESTS. Sia Aktiiuh Smni.uY Bknn, M.P., in 1 his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Association of British Chandlers of Commerce on April 18, said that it was their duty to see that the business point of view was properly presented to the Government of the day. There could not le a more important function than that in a country which lived by Commerce, as we did, and just, now it was i f peculiar importance, partly because the reactions of polities and legislation upon industrv were never so speedy cr so devastating, and partly because since the war some Government department- 1 all the world over lind got it into their heads that they could run any mail's 1 business better than the man himself. There was every need ft r the tonimcieial interests of this country to make their views not merely known, hut felt. The Association of British Chambers of Commerce looked at the world from a. British angle, and with the determination to safeguard and promote British interests. "So looked at tlie world of to-day, 1 am bound to admit, d.a-s not present a very cheering aspect," said Sir Arthur, “hut T again emphasise our British cliai'ueu-r and our British outlook. May it not be that we shall find compensation tor the economic chaos in Europe, and for the loss of old European markets if we seek it in the- British EmpireP Would it not he hotter for us, if instead of mourning the severance of all connections on tin- Continent, we set ourselves vigorously to building up now ones under the British flagi” Europe was scarred and Crippled by the war and by the peace, and there were some who believed her to he so far gone on the road to ruin that complete recovery would take many years to accomplish. “But,” ho continued, “the Umpire is young, vigorous, and underIHipulated, a vast and varied treasurehouse of wealth only awaiting the men and the capital to unlock it. Can anyone doubt that it is in the latter and not the former quarter that the future of this country lies?” He went on to describe our scheme of existence, and said that its stability depended on the smooth and uninterrupted functioning of a. whole complexity of economic processes not merely at. home, hut all over the world. But as the .result oi the war there were large areas where these processes had ceased to operate. Europe, he feared, was such an area. If Europe to-day had her pre-war purchasing power she would lie buying British goods at the rate of something like £100,000,000 a year. As things were she presented a deplorable picture of commercial impotence, political chaos, and militaristic mischief-making Many of them feared the peace of Versailles had merely deepened and prolonged the ruin and agony wrought by the war. He spoke of the pnrt played by this country in procuring victory, but said he wished we could have made our influence more fully felt at Versailles. ‘ 1 Look at Europe to-day—a medley of jealous States lacking confidence and power,” the president proceeded. "Wo see Russia, in the lowest abyss of economic misery that any civilised country lias ever been plunged; we see France with her memory of the past determined to cripple Germany so as to postpone as long a.s possible a bloody war of revenge. \Ye see other nations whose Budgets cannot balance, and some of whom are sinking into hankrptey with tons of paper money tied round their necks. What chance is there of reviving anything like our pre-war volume of steady trade with a Europe torn by such distractions? Confidence, which is the basis of everything, is lacking. A settled trade with the Continent is something we cannot in reason expect for many years io come. Where are we to turn for an equivalent, for something that will take, ior instance, Russia's place as an exporter of foodstuffs and Germany’s as a buyer of our goods? Where, if not the British Empire? Within its ample boundaries there exists every potentialitv of agricultural and mineral wealth that nature can bestow. Development, organisation, men—these are alone lacking; and it must he our business as an association, as a nation, and as m Imverial people to supply thorn.” He looked forward to the time when the* necessary produce, raised within the Empire would enter the ports of

the United Kingdom, and when the overseas Dominions, recruited increasingly from British stock, would provide the steadiest of all markets for British goads. That was why he regarded the approaching Economic Conference of the Empire as an opportunity of the first- magnitude. That association has pressed upon the British Government the advisability of such a conference, and now that it was going to be held they must see to it that it proved prolific in achievement. He declined that they must do as Canning did a hundred years ago—call in the new world to redress the balance of the old. llut the new world to-day was not America. It tvas the British Empire. (Cheers.) They must call in rhe British Empire to make good the ravages of the war, and the ruin—he hoped only temporary - of Europe. It was in the Dominions among our own people, that cur destiny lay as a political and moral force and a civilising influence, and in his judgment there also was our commercial destiny. “Although \ advocate an active and businesslike development of the Empire.” concluded Sir Arthur, “we must not forget the duty which wo owe to our European friends of doing everything in our power to help in the reconstruction of the old world.”