TRADE AFTER THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1916, Page 8

TRADE AFTER THE WAR.

BOARD OF. TRADE'S PROPOSED FAIR.

OPINIONS FOR AND AGAINST

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Wellington, Feb. 21

''.Bo not entertain any illusions about England." says a German business man whose words, addressed to his countrymen, are quoted in-a cablegram. "England will continue the commercial war after the military struggle is ended." The British Empire' is preparing far (hat commercial war. The Patriotic Exhibition opened in Wellington on Saturday is one indication of the trend of the national thought, and it is interesting to notice that an exhibition of a very much more important kind is to be opened in London to-day.

The British Trade Commissioner for New Zealand; Mr. P. W. Dal ton, told your correspondent something about the Board of Trade's London Fair, designed to take ttie place of the famous Le'ipaic Fair. When the war began and the British fleet drove German commerce from the seas, the Board of Trade realised that the manufacturers of the United Kingdom would need all the assistance that could be given to them in order that they might turn the new conditions to the best possible advantage. The first step was to arrange an exhibition of German and Austrian goods in London, in order that the British manufacturers might see what their rivals had been producing. The officers of the Board of Trade secured a representative collection of imported articles from London firms and soon British houses were producing and selling many lines in which the Germans previously had possessed a practical monopoly. ' But there was a special phase of German trading methods to be considered.

''The (!'.'Vman manufacturer believes in getting big bulk orders for one article ■lO matter how cheap the article is, and. making very large quantities of that particular line." said Mr. 7)alton. Then lie will proceed to put his goods on the market and naturally his cost of production is very low. The British manufacturers, on the other hand, tend to make an article of superior quality for which the demand will be limited. ' The cost of production per unit under these conditions will not be very low. The Hoard of Trade knew that an important factor in enabling the Germans to follow their method successfully had h?»n the Leinzic Fair, a great annual exhibition where manufacturers and bin-ors met every spring. Buyers went to Leipsic in very large numbers from all over the world, and gave big orders for certain goods nfirr tliev bad inspected samples of the lines that the German manufacturers were prepared to produce. Thus the manufacturers '.earned early in the year what articles -would be required, and they bad siv months to produce huge quantities at very cheap rates before delivery was required for the Christmas trade.

"Our manufacturers, on the other band, not having the advantage, of such a Fair, were obliged to take their orders piecemeal from the buyers, who ordered in small quantities month by month until the later part of November, or even the early part of December for delivers for the Christmas trade. The result was that the British manufacturer cou'd never quote attractive prices in competition with the German firms. The importance of this point became obvious fvhen we were considering how to capture the 'smallware' trade for Britain after the outbreak of war, and the Board of Trade decided, therefore, to estab'Mi an annual Fair in London on the lines of the Leipzic Fair. The first of these exhibitions was held in February of last year, and it was so marked a success that the manufacturers, at a dinner given to the President of the Board of Trade, expressed their wish that the Board would continue the work in future years. The second Fair is being held in Loudon this month."

Mr. Dalton added that nobody would expect normal trade conditions to be established in tlie United Kingdom during the course of the war. But the Board of Tro.de hoped to get the annual Fair in London thoroughly well established before the termination of the war made it possible for the T.eipzic Fair to become a competitive force again. The measure of success already achieved was highly gratifying in view of the fact that manufacturers from one end of the United Kii'.gdom to the other were being required In give the greater part of their attention to supplying the needs of the War Office and the Admiralty.' "An effort of this kind seems to me to be out of place at (lie present time,'' said a returned wounded soldier at the. Patriotic Exhibition in Wellington's Town Hall this afternoon. "Are we going to beat Germany in this war or arc we not? If we are going to fight to a finish and bring the Germans to their knees, then why waste energy preparing for a trade war to follow the declaration of peace? A thoroughly beaten Germany will have no means of conducting an energetic trade war and, moreover, we shall have imposed the conditions of peace. This talk about the necessity for preparing to fight Germany in the markets of the world seem to bo to savor of the beliefs of those half-hearted people who say that the war will end in a sort of dra'w, with the 'Germans still strong enough to force the rest of the world to carry an enormous and increasing burden of armamets. This is not my idea. As a worker, and as a man who has done his bit in tho battlo line, T say that our aim should be nothing less than the complete smashing of the German military machine and the humbling of tho nation that has tried to dominate humanity, Tf Wdo less, then we shall lave won no victory and gained no lasting assurances of peace."