The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1915. EMPIRE TRADE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 31, 8 February 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1915. EMPIRE TRADE.

The example set by Auckland in starting an Empire Trade League is one well worth following, and it is in suck movements that public interest ought to be aroused. Germany’s “ten commercial commandments” urge the purchase of none but German goods under any and all circumstances, and if only, the people of our Empire had acted as wisely, the enemy would not have been so powerful to-day. Mr W. A. Beddoe, Canada’s Trade Commissioner, who was present at the Auckland meeting, told those present that in New Zealand, as in Canada, he had found the principle of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market firmly imbedded, and ho did not suppose that anyone could be blamed very mifch for doing so, though it was not always the wisest course. In quoting statistics of trade with Germany, Mr Beddoe said thdt in 1913 the British Empire had presented Germany with the equivalent of thirtynine Dreadnoughts. He believed that Imperial feeling to-day was in favor of purchasing British articles even if wo paid a little more for them. The speaker said that it was not only the countries of our enemies that we had to consider, but also neutral countries, whose merchants were prepared to facilitate trade with Germany. The only way to cope with the difficulty was by means of a system of preferential trade within the Empire. Mr Beddoe also urged the adoption of reciprocal preferential tariffs within the Empire, and the provision of transportation facilities, with a system of uniform freight rates of a permanent character, and the institution of commercial services designed to bring together the exporter and importer. The first step is to organise our commerce and industry in such a way us to make the Empire, as far as possible, self-supporting. This can be done only if all determine to give preference, both in a personal and a commercial sense, to goods of British origin, and it is to this end that the League just formed will work in this country.