The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1916. THE EMPIRE'S TRADE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 67, 16 October 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1916. THE EMPIRE'S TRADE.

The visit to this district of Mr R. Dalton, British Trade Commissiqner ia New Zealand, should certainly do good, for in his very enlightening address, Mr Dalton was able to drive home some truths about the great work in helping to win the war that British manufacturers are doing. He was able, also, to dispel some misapprehensions which have gained ground regarding trade relations with Britain, both now and in the future. Mi- Dalton's mission is a most important one, and the Board of Trade is acting wisely in sending such men to the Dominions in- view of the trade war which is bound to follow the cessation of hostilities. As Mr Dalton emphatically made clear, Britain, despite the tremendous handicap on her industrial resources which the , great war has imposed, is still able to keep her export of manufactured goods up to 90 per cent, of the level of immediately'before the war figures, and with the awakening which has come and the revolution of many oi her methods, she will be in a position in enormously increase her production for export when the war is ended. Apart, from the plain duty of every citizen of the Empire to support and uphold in every way he can that Empire and its institutions. Mr Dalton was able to show that the idea that foreign-made goods are cheaper than British is very largely imagination, while on the other hand the superiority of, the British-made article is unquestioned. It has been pointed out by one well-known English writer that no industrial settlement, however safeguarded, can be expected to restore pre-war conditions when the war is over. The war itself is changing them permanently. The totally new economic world in which the people of the United Kingdom will live will change fh.mi still more. With the best will in the world things can never again be as they have been. In other countries it is realised that greet changes arc coming to us, and it fe well to prepare for them. In a financial review recently published by a. leading New York house, it is ! assorted that a great many careful i and. experienced observers look for a I period of excessive prostration among the belligerents after the war. Mint," this review says, "though U'lerc will be a period of severe economic exhaustion, not a few of the prophets of distress have under-esti-matvd the recuperative powers of the } oi'eat nations. Oreat Britain, for instance, is undergoing a terrific strain 1 in financing not only her own huge 'navy and army, but also in the finan- ' cial aid given her Allies. England's resources are not confined to her own island, but must be measured also by 1 the enormous resources of he coloS nios, her huge investments abroad, and' the fact that her immense in- ' dusries and sea-borne commerce have continued with little interruption. A

nation carrying nearly one-half the trade of the world, and controlling such vast resources outside of herself, is not likely to be seriously crippled by contest with Powers of much inferior resources. Great Briain will probably come out of the war in better condition than any of the belligerents. She will probably emerge an Empire solidified, awakened, strengthened, and more powerful than ever. Beyond question the war has welded the Empire into a unit as nothing else could." It is in tins great work of welding that Mr Dal ton is showing us bow we may take part, and by helping the manufacturers of the Motherland yet help ourselves. It would be a poor return indeed, if, after the British manufacturer lias risked everything practically of his trade's future to carry on our war—for it is every bit as much our war as his—against a ruthless and unscrupulous enemy, we were to abandon him for a foreign trade-rival.