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Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1927, Page 2

Trrn British Prime Minister took an early opportunity in his Canadian tour to impress upon the people of the Great Dominion the advisability of building up intimate commercial relations with the Motherland. It should hardly be necessary to impress upon a Canadian audience the value of such a policy. For it was Canada that first offered Britain the benefits of preferential trade in a colonial market, and her attitude towards tin* great (juration of Imperial rooipreoity has not altered during ilu* past thirty years. Nor have the Canadians failed to upjH'Oeintc the importance of the concession that they thus offered to Britain and the indirect benefits that it confers upon their own commerce and industry. The preferential treatment accorded to British goods in the Canadian market has greatly increased British trade with Canada, and Air Baldwin lias taken pains to remind the Canadians that Britain is still a customer well worth encouraging. The British Prime .Minister .scouts the idea that Britain is canmicrcially decadent or moribund, and be urges the Dominions to exploit. to their own advantage the opportunities offered by British markets. Regarding the principal point raised by Air Baldwin in his address at Montreal—the value of inter-imperial trade—there is not much reason for difference of opinion. But the latest trad:* returns suggest that Britain nee.is all the. help that the Dominions •■an give her to make her commercial balance-sheet presentable. The “Economist” has pointed out recently that since 101. A Britain’s imports have risen about .TO nor eei|t. ami her exjiarts have fallen about 2.j per cent, while the adverse bab-mee of trade has grown jt <1111 to £2:n>.i;oo.i)!:;i during the past fourteen years. T’his has Id l a huge deficit to be made up by the so-called “illvisible’’ exports, such as returns from foreign loans and investments and payments for shipping serviies. lint the returns from these sources have for various reasons fallen heavily since the war, and no doubt this is one chief reason for the recent decline cl Britain’s commercial and industrial prosperity. Aluch may be done by lhe Dominions to improve Britain’s position by encouraging, her to sell in their markets, and hajipily tin’s is a. ease in 'which our duty and our interest nhiinlv coincide.