PROFIT AND PATRIOTISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1916, Page 7

PROFIT AND PATRIOTISM.

THE COMMERCIAL INVASION. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, August 30. In these war times no Britisher who fully realises his obligation to the Empire and is determined to discharge it will dream of putting profit in the scale against patriotism. The trader who is loyal to his race, no ?ess than his oust,e/jier who is loyal to himself, would S?mh to turn the embarrassments and difficulties of his country to his own personal advantage. But in New Zealand at the present time there arc numbers of sellers, and, of course, numbers of buyers, who, probably through thoughtlessness rather than through any lack of national spirit, are falling somewhat short of their own patriotic ideals in this k respect. They are not the small tradesmen who are making the war an excuse for exploiting the public ia pennies and shillings on the prices ol commodities. These offenders, comparatively small in numbers, after all, stand in a different category. It is more particularly certain large importers, enterprising indent agents and similar traders who are apt to forget what is due from them in the crisis through which the nation is passing. Their supplies from the Mother Country having been stopped or seriously delayed through many British manufacturers being employed in the production of supplies and munitions for the Army and Navy—in helping, that is, to win the wai—they are turning a ready car' to the representatives of neutral countries, who are scouring the country for orders and in some cases making contracts which will endure for long after peace in all probability will be restored. THE NATIONAL VIEW. No one can reasonably find fault with the American manufacturers for making the most of the commercial advantaged they enjoy through their country having kept out of the frightful struggle that is taxing to the uttermost the whole strength of Britain and 'her Allies. That is all in the way of business. Nor can the local merchants be blamed if their customers, unable to obtain the goods they require from British manufacturers, insist upon having them from some other source. Buti if the people of New Zealand recognised the full significance of what is going on—how the British manufacturer engaged for the time in a groat national work of vital importance to every part of the Empire ij being supplanted by the foreigner—surely they would put up with a little inconvenience rather than assist to forward this insidious invasion.

"Much depends in this matter," said a leading .Wellington merchant yesterday, "upon the attitude of the genera] public. If buyers resent a little inconvenience and demand to be supplied in war time with the goods they 'used to buy,' they add to the trouble? of the British manufacturers and play into the hands of their trade rivals." This is not the wail of national.parochialism. In peace time tlie British manufacturers have been, perhaps, a. little too indifferent to the efforts of their trade rivals. At any rate, they have asked no favors. But in war time they are entitled as a matter of patriotism to every consideration their kith and kin throughout the Empire lan give them. EMPIRE TRADE. ■Referring to this subject in the course of an interview with a representative of the Dominion, Mr. K. \V. Dalton, the British Trade Comrnissione.". who is continuing with ran* tact and conspicuous ability the excellent work begun by .Mr. Rolieston and carried on by Mr. Wickham, spoke with reassuring 1 confidence of the rapid expansion of British trade and industry once the war is over. "The lines of trade in which foreign countries have shown most activity during the war period," he said, essentially the lines in which the manufacturers of the United Kingdom will show the most rapid recovery when the war is over. I make that statement with knowledge of what has happened since the outbreak of war, and of developments that arc proceeding. The British manufacturer, as 1 said some time ago, will be prepared to meet the demands ot all his customers after ho has helped the armed forces of the Allies to win the war. He is serving the dominions as well as the United Kingdom at the present time, and his concentration upon war work handicaps him to some extent in handling ordinary trade. I feel sure the people of til if country recognise that fact, and are prepared to see that the manufacturer of the United Kingdom is not prejudiced unfairly by anything that is occurring to-day." This is the confidence and the spirit that ought' to be animating the people of New Zealand at the present time. Both are justified by the facts. Peace will bring to the nations within the Empire in an especial degree wider opportunities, a broader outlook and still more sympathetic unity, ind with these will come increased industrial and commercial activities with all the advantages that follow in their train. A LOCAL ASPECT.

There is one aspect of this question of practical patriotism which particularly concerns, the primary producers of New Zealand.' The war, instead of involving the farmers in financial anxiety and loss, as it has so many other members of the community, has actually lightened their burdens and increased their profits. With no material advance in their ordinary expenditure, they are receiving largely enhanced prices ior their products, and as a result, speaking generally, are substantially improving their position every day the war continues. But in spite of their abounding prosperity, many of them are now demanding that an arrangement made 'betwe'en their representatives and the Government, by which all their meat available for export was placed at the disposal of the Imperial authorities at a higher price than they had ever received before, should be revised with a view to securing for them a still higher price. It may be said that this, also, is "all in the way of business," but the 'farmers of this much-favored country would scarcely care to be rated with the American and Japanese exporters who aro striving to oust the . British manufacturers, now engaged in the production of supplies and munitions for war purposes, from their former markets. They would indignantly resent such a suggestion. But by trying to extract a higher price for their meat from the Mother Country they are displaying the poorest kind of patriotism and coming perilously near to a place in the category which includes the greedy shopkeeper ■who raises his prices by pennies and shillings for articles which cost him no more now than they lid before the war began. It would be only right and proper for them to take what steps they could to ensure the British public obtaining, every possible 130110111 from the importation of New Zealand meat, but beyond this they have no conceivable cxicuso for agitating for the revision-of the contract as it standi