SIR JAMES PARR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1931, Page 5

SIR JAMES PARR

SURVEYS EMPIRE TRADE GR EAT OPPORTUNITIES SEEN. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 19. Returning to New Zealand after live years in the Old Country Sir .James Parr, formerly High Commissioner in fymdon, came back this morning convinced that England was undergoing a tremendous change of heart with regard to tariff questions. It was not improbable, he said, that within the next year or two England .would turn protectionist, with strong bias in favour of Empire trade.

“In marketing propaganda, there are stdl tremendous opportunities,” said Sir James. “It is most important, because every additional retailer for New Zealand products that we secure is an asset for the farmers of this country. Indeed. I am satisfied that the cure for New Zealand’s industrial ills is to be found largely in the extension of our only market, namely, the British market, and in the adoption by the English people of a policy of protection for Dominion products, as against the dump frig of cheap foreign stuff into England! through hei* free ports, which remain free in pursuance of the now generally discredited policy of tree trade, which pute the New Zealander and the foreigner on the same level, notwithstanding the valuable preference's given in the Dominions to the Mother Country. CLOSER EMPIRE TRADE. ‘‘For the past- year I have been organising and speaking in a great movement having for its object the adoption in England of a protective tariff and closer Empire trade. I have addressed over 100 meetings with all sorts of audiences, from manufacturers to Communists. T was agreeably surprised to find everywhere a strong revulsion against free trade, or rather, free imoorts, for England has never, strictly speaking, had free trade with its implication of free trade at both ends. ,

“The Conservative Party is now pledged at the next General Election to a straight-out policy of protection or safeguarding as it is called. Even the Liberal, historic supporters of free trade, are split on this issue. Sir John Simon, the best brain in the liberal Party, Profesor J. M. Keynes, tbe ablest of all the post-war economists, and other important men among th-o Liberals, have pronounced for tariff and prohibition of sweated and dumped foreign goods. “Even tbe workers ar e . all turning against free trade. The Trade#? Union Congress which met last year, representing 4,000.000 trade unionists, was most emphatic in its demand for reconsideration of the whole question of tariffs, and was as keen to make nr* ratigementH with Dominion countries, based on mutual bargains founded on tariff principles. ALL-IMPORTANT ISSUE. “I regard the tariff issue in England as all-important for New Zealand and our industrial future,” Sir James continued. Sir James referred to the fact that Japanese cotton goods were being sold in Lancashire itself, where 45 per cent, of operatives were out of work, and also that in Northampton, a boett manufacturing centre, he saw boots and shoes from Czecho-Slovak'ia hawked about tbe place and sold. “I have seen municipally built houses in England in which there were no British building materials at all. The bricks were brought from Belgium the tiles from France, ' the timber from Russia, the doors and sashes from Norway, and even the baths and electrical fittings from Germany. The English people are waking up to the fact that they have got to prrttect their own industries anc! keep them. Paving wages is better than paying doles. If a plebiscite were taken to-moyrow m England uncomplicated by Party politics, I haylittle doubt -'that protection would easily carry the <l a% ■ i