33

A.—6a

The per capita figures are, well within the knowledge of most of you. According to their populations the Dominions buy on a much higher basis than any foreign countries in the world, as shown in the following table : —

The highest is New Zealand, with £13 18s. 3d. a head. Australia is next, with £11 18s. Bd., and the. lowest on the list, if I exclude Russia, is Italy, which, takes 10s. lid., a head. A country such as the United States takes 14s. 7d. a head, as against a Dominion like Australia £11 18s. Bd. Those figures, I think, show that the Dominions at the present time are doing their trade with Britain as far as it is possible for them to do it. I think they must convince anybody that at the present moment the Dominion markets are of very great value to Great Britain, and that their potential value is a, thing, if we proceed along a proper line of development, which no man can possibly estimate. There are some people who say everything is all right in this best of all possible, worlds ; that there is nothing wrong with British trade or British methods or anything else. lam not saying that as against Britain. It happens in every country. It happens in Australia. We also have people who say everything is all right in this best of all possible worlds. But it is not. That is not the attitude that is going to help. We are very often told that everything that is happening now is a result of the war ; that if there had been no war everything would have gone on perfectly well for Great Britain, and that there would have been no industrial situation to meet and no economic trouble at all. In 1913 I used to live: in England, and I certainly did not gather the impression that everything was running quite on oiled wheels at that time. If one considers the positions of Britain, Germany, and the United States over the period between 1890 and 191.2 (not complicating the situation at all by dealing with the; period after the war) the export figures are certainly of considerable interest. lam quoting them only to show the relative advances made by the three countries : —

Total Exports.

I think these figures must suggest that there was certainly a ve:ry difficult period ahead of Britain on account of the intense competition of those two countries, which, reserved to themselves their own markets, and used Britain only for the purposes of their surplus production. Another point that I would venture to state; (though in regard to anything I have to say I wish to make it perfectly clear that we are not in any way interfering in affairs which are matters of purely British interest and matters of British extermination) is that the requests which have come in recently from rather surprising quarters that some action should be taken to protect their industries certainly point to the fact that the position is not as satisfactory as might be desired. The woollen industry, the silk industry, and other industries have asked for protection under the Safeguarding of Industries Act. lam not using that as an illustration of any particular fiscal system at all. All lam using it for at this moment is to show that it is desirable that Britain should exhaust all the possibilities of creating new markets for herself, anel that there is a real necessity for her to give that matter serious consideration. Effect of a Preference Policy on Britain's Relations with other Countries. There is one other point I. have to deal with, and that is a fear which was expressed in many quarters that if the British, markets were ensured, in any way—and I say quite deliberately, in any way—to tlie: Dominions it would provoke foreign retaliation and would complicate; the whole of

5 —A. (3a.

Population (Whitaker, 1928). Exports. British Produce and Manufacture. Re-exports. Total. New Zealanel Australia DenmarkSouth Africa Canada Argentine France Germany United States of America Spain Greece Italy Russia 1,200,000 5,500,000 . 3,000,000 6,000,000 7,300,000 8,250,000 40,000,000 65,500,000 105,000,000 21,350,000 7,000,000 38,500,000 136,000,000 £ s. d. 13 4 5 10 19 6 4 3 0 4 1 !) 3 9 5 2 15 0 1 4 2 0 9 10 0 10 6 0 11 2 0 10 10 0 10 0 0 0 (i s. d. £ s. d. 13 10 13 18 3 19 2 11 18 8 8 3 4 11 3 4 3 4 6 0 7 3 3 Hi 8 I 7 2 16 7 8 10 .1 13 0 5 2 0 15 0 4 1 0 14 7 0 11 0 12 1 0 2 0 11 0 0 11 0 10 11 0 1 0 0 7

Year. United Kingdom. Germany. U.S.A. U.S.A. I 1890 ,1900 1905 1910 1912 £ 263,000,000 291,000,000 329,000,000 430,000,000 487,000,000 £ 166,000,000 230,000,000 281,000,000 367,000,000 440,000,000 £ 176,000,000 302,000,000 310,000,000 356,000,000 452,000,000