Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-12
ENGLAND RATES TRADE
CHIEF EMPIRE PROBLEM
Dominions Might Secede if Only They
Give Britain Orders to Aid
Unemployed.

and agree that Pennsylvania supply the
steel.
In the last war Canada, New Zealand
and Australia sent their sons to fight
for the empire alongside British troops.
It is far from impossible that this phe-
nomenon might be repeated In a like
emergency Nevertheless, Canada, Aus
tralia and New Zealand will not scrap
their rising industrial plants. nor will
they permit their own markets to be
flooded by raw materials coming from
another dominion.
Handicaps Are Cited.
Thus there are three factors. The
! British, who desire the dominion mar
kets, but see that to control there by
an empire tariff system they must add
| to the costs of their own production
! and thus add to their handicap in
competing with Europe in other nee
essary markets, therefore, hang back
| The dominionS desire to occupy the
| British markets. but are similarly hesi-
tant to give up their own industrial
! plants and depend upon Great Britain
| for manufactured articles. And, finally,
these same dominions are quite as dis
turbed over the effect upon their own
| home markets, we're these. under q
system of imperial free trade, to be
| opened to the exports of other do
minions competing with their own
products.
When the representatives Of the
South African Union or the Irish Free
State come DANGEROUSLY to London de-
handing the right to secede, the Briton
is undisturbed. Let them go or stay"
says he, "but for Gods sake let every
body cut the cackle and come to the
losses, in the main question, which is
trade" Rising 100000 unemployed In
Britain, with Winter coming on and
no relief in sight, serves to make any
political discussion not merely aca-
demic, but irritating.
Yet, given the best brains and an
equal good will, it is dificult to see
what can be done. The Beaverbrook-
Rothemere cry of empire free trade
like the Fascist shibboleths Of the Hit
lerites in Germany, derives its present
appeal rather from the external than
the intrinsic circumstance. All the old
remedies have been tried, politically In
Germany and economically in Britain,
and viSibly they have not worked. The
situation Is so bad that masses of peo-
pie believe that any change would be
an improvement And it is on this
platform that the Imperial Conference
Is meeting.
Soviet Becomes Factor.
Yet it is patent that If the Soviet
can pull of its experiment in collec-.
tive farming and governmental market
ing, 1t can sell wheat in Liverpool far
below the cost of production in any
dominion, just as it can sell it in Ham
burg. 1t is plain, also, that If Britain
puts an imperial tariff upon Russian
wheat to protect Canadian or Austral-
Ian wheat Germany can satisfy her
needs at costs so small as to enable
her to undersen Britain, first In Rus
STA and then everywhere else where
the two countries compete. And
henceforth Russia is the "deuces wild"
Of any international economic poker
game.
Every one must be interested In the
imperial conference. as they are in
terested on smaller scale by the sim
liar efforts of the peoples of Central
and Eastern Europe to discover basis
for economic exchange which shall be
mutually profitable. Interested as
Americans are in the commissions
which the President has appointed to
ceal with the identical problem In the
United States. But the prospects of
any really useful results emerging from
the British experiment are very slight.
If only 1t were as simple to deal
with the economic as the political Is
sues, to satisfy the material needs Of
both the mother country and the
dominions by some simple declaration
like Jim" Thomas pronouncement on
the right of secession all would be well.
But 10 years OF talk In Britain and
around the circle of the dominions has
left things where they started and re-
suited in. the end in giving two astute
newspaper owners a chance to capi-
talize national economic unrest, as
Mussolini and Hitler have in their
countries capitalized political inco-
herence, accompanied by economic
distress.
copyright, 1900