THE SOUTH AMERICAN MARKET

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1930, Page 6

THE SOUTH AMERICAN MARKET

(As seen by “The Engineer’’) (From Chamber of Commerce Journal, Argentine.) ! Considering that the present crisis of world superabundance is largely due to the fact that the ability of the mechanical engineer to speed up production has momentarily run ahead of the ability of business and finance to insure its efficient distribution the following; article written, from the engineering point of view is of particular interest. No country so revels in seif-casti-gation as ours. Your Briton is never so filled with gloomy happiness as when he is extolling the faults of his own country and exhibiting, by contrast, the merits of others. On tuis subject even the least literate wax voluble, and well-eduoated call up the, resources of our vigorous language to tell us in well-ordered phrases just what' we ought to think of ourselves. Where the peoples of., other nations sing cheerfully their own praises, we pull long faces and chant the dirge -of -departing trade, sk-illr wisdom and,, enterprise.lt >wns .ever thus.

There was a time when we tliorion ghly. believed in- ourselves-; , .when we were convinced that whatever we did was right and whatever other, j peoples- did was Wb' wer|. /disliked, hut just iis we respected our- , selves, so others respected us. That was a national asset; what we believed we could do, we did. even] though we had to tread upon tire toes of other people in the doing. It is quite incredible that we have lost the characteristics that once we had; they are still there, hut they are submerged under an absurd and unworthy inferiority complex. We are the same people that we ever were; ,we- are capable of the saiue ; deter, mination, the same energy, the same , couragp and skill and enterprise'.'.that our fathers and forefathers; knewy/No more than greater confidence m our, own abilitibsr js required 'to, yjsiorer those qualities to ins. A v revivalof; a .little of ouirJ Elizabethan would do us no haim. ‘’ . ■Tii August of. last ;:year ' r a ''British"' Economic Mission under the chairmanship of Lord D’Abernon; visited Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Ji spent about a month in those countries and has just issued an excellentify written report, which follows the present national habit of self-deprec-iation. It may be necessary that we should know our defects, but it is questionable ,wliether the publication ,pf> severe «elf : crßicism is beneficial ,to the, country as a whole. Some less /public ‘means' of bringing the facts ■before the people concerned might be desirable. We must not forget that. 1 whenever 'we criticise 'ourselves the •foreign’ competitor'is listening at the keyhole, and for his own purpose distorts and exaggerates what -he ov<-i----,hears. It suits him to cultivate the belief that Great Britain is “down and out;’? and he takes advantage ofpur admissions to foster that error. We require all the : advice that we can get from expert observers, but we suggest that in future it might he better to give the advice in public and reserve the criticism of "Urse!ves for private and selected distribution. It is from that aspect that we glume at the report.

There, is we learn, a friendly feeling towards Gnmt Britain in the South American republics. We have spent there ’ in the past one thousand millions sterling on the construction of railways, ports, waterworks and development enterprises of various kinds. Ou,r methods have commanded the approbation of South American opinion. The quality of our-goods and the reputation.;'of o,ur. .merchants have 1 won respect,band “it’ is -nobexaggeration to say that, "on equal terms, large classes in South Amciiea are 'more than willing to deal with Giredt Britain.” The Argentine Industrial Union has declared that Argentina wants to Buy from us everything that it ‘ cannot produce itself, and the President of the Republic has entered into an agreement vv ith Great Britain under which each country undertakes to buy up to £8,700,000 in value of the products of the other. . These are sound evidences that the opportunities for trade in South America have not been lost for ever, and we note with gratification the conviction of the Commission that “under certain conditions, not only is recovery possible, but we can improve all: past record.” AVe do not know in what light the report will be regarded by . the present Government, but there is much in it which indicates a policy that must be included aiuongst the “certain conditions” mentioned in the passage just quoted. It may be sufficiently hinted at by a single quotation: “The aim of reciprocity would be to facilitate and increase the freer movement of commodities by the reciprocal removal of barriers, by the' concession of advantage for advantage, by the merging of selfinterest in mutual interest.” We in ay leave that delicate point there, and turn to more immediately useful advice.

Once more we find the old charge against the British manufacturer that he will not supply the purchaser with what he wants. Our impression is that Great Britain is not very different from other great manufaetur--40,0 countries in that respect. If all commercial advisers were tbem-

selves manufacturers they; would appreciate the difficulty of modifying designs to suit one section of the market. -But the same arguement does not apply to new commodities, and it would be worth the -white of our manufacturers to pursue the hint given on this matter in the report. It appears that “tlie average Argentine household thinks more now in terms of motor cars, ' gramophones and radio sets than of Irish iiubu, 'Sheffield cutlery and English china and glass. The expenditure on new luxuries has diverted money which would otherwise have gone to the staple trades.’’ Clearly Argentina is not very different from Europe and is thinking rather of how to enjoy herself than of more serious -.affairs. We cannot expect engineering hrins to change over from the production Of cranes, turbines and locomotives to the manufacture of gramophones and radio sets, 'but at least we have-the satisfaction of knowing that these things cannot he made without the help of the machinery they construct. There are few, if any, industries which do not sooner or later come to the mechanical engineer for help, and if the Argentine is anxious to spend its money upon trifles instead of upon railways we should be foolish not to turn its taste as much as possible to our own advantage. We referred, recently to the sometimes nmneces.sarity"high quality of British goods for certain purposes, and we are interested to see 11 a strong confirmation of our vievvs put forward by Lord •bD'Aberhoii’s Commission. .Even in -the abler 'fbra/nches of commerce in which the quality of our goods en-j ables us to maintain a .prominent place, there -is a demand for pro-, ducts of a lower quality as well. “In the markets which we investigated,V. says the report, “'the criticism is fre-: quently made that British goods last too long. It was said that in an age of rapid change and invention British machines outlive their usefulness. We aim, in short, too much at intrinsic merit and not enough at show ■or novelty.” This is a hard saving to British engineers, hut manifestly it is vain to make what the market does not want. “If we are to maintain our place, it is indispensable to take national characteristics into account, and to keep ourselves well to the front, not only in point of efficiency, but 1 also in, point of show.”

The recent succession of reports /upon industry and trade, amongst •ivhich that of the Balfour Committee j/inust be. given the place of honour, .'have provided, the British engineer, Amongst others, with a plethora of good' advice. If he is invited to digest indnv more lie will suffer from a surfeit. What he wants now is less advice but more encouragement, and, if not more assistance, at least less interference with him in his work. Lord D’Abernon’s Commission admits that for the prosecution of trade developments in. South America more capital is needed. He does not say, he cannot say, where that capital is to be found.

We :may, for . our part, suggest that it \vill .never be available as long as tour, country is so heavily taxed that it is quite unable to build up reserves. We'' have had for some years past a powerful parliamentary opposition and now a Government which is not in sympathy with Capital, and is opposed to private enterprise. As long as such views prevail it will remain impossible for this country to carry out such great scheme's for foreign development as it handled successfully in the past. Ihe advice that is given cannot, for lack of means, he taken, and we .are forced ■by circumstances to stand aside whilst another and richer nation does wliat we might dq, or whilst nations build up their own industries at our expense, hut without giving us the satisfaction which we used to enjoy of securing adequate participation in them.