THE IMPORTERS' RESPONSIBILITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 February 1916, Page 7

THE IMPORTERS' RESPONSIBILITY.

MR. T. H VILFORD PUTS SOME QUESTIONS, (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Tuesday. "Who is running this exhibition, and who is supplying the exhibits in the stalls?" asked Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., at the Patriotic Exhibition this evening. "The answer can he given in a single word —importers. Who could stop German trade? The importers. If the importers want to stop German trade they have the matter in their own hands, and I hope that this exhibition is going to focus public attention upon tlieni. When this war is over, are the importers going to buy and sell as traders or as Britishers? Are they going to import and sell German goods, or arc they going to be patriotic enough to refuse to handle the foreign articles that return such big profits? The general public cannot answer that question. The women do the buying for the homes of New Zealand, but they cannot distinguish German goods from British goods without the assistance of the importers. The importers are running this exhibition, and they will run New Zealand trade after this war. That is why I ask if they are going to be patriots, or merely traders. If the importers bring the German goods ipto the country, then the public is helpless." Mr. Wilford proceeded to refer to the naturalisation laws. He said that in July, 1913, the German Government had enacted a law which provided that "with a view to meeting business requirements, a German shall not lose his nationality if before acquiring a foreign nationality he obtains permission of the German authorities to retain his German nationality." In other words, a German living in a foreign country—Britain or New Zealand, for example—could have a dual nationality. He could be naturalised in the foreign country and enjoy the privileges of cAizenship in that country, while at the same time retaining his own nationality secretly, by consent of his Government. A German who had been naturalised in a British country under this arrangement could take a British name, trade ais a British subject, and escape the internment camp, while all the time retaining his German citizenship and his German allegiance. After referring to German trading methods and to the necessity for a radical alteration of the trading arrangements of the British Empire in the direction oT centralised control and conservation of interests, Mr. W T ilford turned again to the New Zealand importers. He said that he wanted an assurance that they were not going to import German goods after the close of the war. .Parliament would have to deal with the further question of the German companies which would sprin? up in New Zealand when peace was declared and would endeavor to secure a mnrket for cheap German goods. It poemed inevitable that after the war times would be hard and prices would lie high. The ordinary consumer would be buying as cheaply as possible, and would have no means of protecting himself from German goods. Would the importers do their duty then? He believed that the State would have to control the prices of the primary products in New Zealand after the war. That should have been done already, and the measures for keeping down the cost of living would have to accompany the efforts to preserve the market for British goods. (Applause.)