Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-08-21
Ottawa Farley Has Shown
Lack of Economic Unity
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, August 20-The eleventh.
hour attempt Of Premier Bennett of
Canada and former Premier Bruce OF
Australia to give the British lemon an
other squeeze at Ottawa has aroused
much resentful comment, even In the
conservative press here.
1t Is true that the London Morning
Post says the British government. when
offered the choice of the empire or the
Soviets, has chosen the latter. but Or
gans like the London Times and the
London Daily Telegraph are severely
critical of BENEFITS last effort to STAN
pede the British delegation into what
would amount to an economic war with
Russia.
Such an issue Of the Ottawa confer
ence would have been overwhelmingly
repudiated by the sober opinion OF the
country and would have turned the
conference into a political engine to
fight bolshevism instead of co-opera-
tive endeavor to remove trade barriers
and stimulate world trade. The Daily
Telegraph points out that important
industrial interests in this country are
largely dependent on the export trade
Of Russia, and an embargo on Russian
imports would destroy it.
The Canadian timber interests. says
the Manchester Guardian. having lost
the United States market, now claim
a monopolistic position in the British
market, bolstered not only by tariff
and a quota, but by an embargo against
their keeneSt competitors. "One Won
ders what would have been said" the
Guardian continues, had the British
government attempted such impairment
interference with the external affairs
of the dominions. What indignation
there would have been, for example, If
the British delegation had suggested to
Bennett that Canada's commercial ar
rangements with the United States
were all wrong and that the British
cabinet and lawyers be allowed to frame
them afresh."
What is described here as an in
decent conspiracy to force the hand
of Britain has more nearly wrecked the
conference in the last two days than
at any time since the beginning, but
at least some sort of agreement has
been achieved. The British formula
of transferring the proposed Russian
embargo from direct relation to Russia
to all imports which come under the
definition of dumping Is expected to
provide an acceptable compromise.
Dumping is an instrument for knock
ing down prices to uneconomlc Levels,
ruinous to all competing countries, ana
where this policy Is adopted, as in the
case of Russia. for political ends the
case for action Is strengthened. Even
free traders here admit the necessity
for protective action in such circum-
stances, especially in view OF the fact
that one Of the chief obstacles to world
recovery is the low level Of commodity
prices, OF which dumping Is the prime
cause.
~ Il +
There is general agreement, too, with
the principle stated by Stanley Bald
win that Britain would take protective
action against dumping designed to kill
the dominion preferences in the British
market. This action would not be
taken against Russia exclusively but
against Germany, France. Czechoslo-
vakia and all countries indifferently.
Apart from the heated struggle be-
tween the high-protectionist Canadian
government and the fairly stubborn
British delegation, the results Of the
conference have been cautious and
practical. Very properly no attempt
was made to solve monetary and cur
rency problems, which belong to the
World Economic Conference, but use
full work was done in regard to meth
DDS of intercommonwealth cooperation,
such as the development Of consulta-
tive machinery and the Standardization
of research. These are subjects which
have occupied former imperial confer
ences, and the view is pretty widely ex-
pressed that the conference would have
been better advised to stick to prac-
ticable forms Of cooperation rather
than succumb to he temptation thrown
out by Bennett at the conference OF
1880 to attempt to create fiscal unity
where no natural economic unity exists.
(cpy-ight, Isa2J