Evening star., 1932-10-19
Britannia First

Britain and the overseas dommlons
conferred at Ottawa over imperial eco
nomic issues decisions were taken
destined to ramify far beyond the con-
fines of the British commonwealth OF
nations. When the House OF Commons
reconvened at London yesterday almost
the first government announcement
made was that by Mr.. j. H. Thomas,
secretary of state for the dominions, to
the effect that Great Britain has abro-
gated it's commercial treaty with Soviet
Russia, effective six months hence.
The action became necessary. he
pointed out, under Article 81 OF the
Ottawa tariff agreement. The pact
with Russia was a temporary CONNER
cial treaty signed in April, 1880. AS 1t
gives the Soviet the privileges of most
favored nation treatment, it stands in
the way of trade prohibitions which the
mother country undertook to insti-
tute under the obligations assumed at
Ottawa.
At the conference, of which this de-
velopment is the first visible lnterna-
tional fruit, Canada and Australia vir-
tuaIly laid down the ultimatum that
the British government adopt effective
means to prevent Russian dumping OF
wheat. Eventual abrogation of the
Russian treaty was contemplated as a
result of this particular demand by
the two largest dominions. The gov
ernment having pledged itself to give
tariff preferences within the common
wealth, the secretary for the domin-
ions explained to Parliament that there
is no alternative but to see that no
country illustrates this obligation by
dumping sweated goods in Great
Britain"
This is thrust at the notorious
Communist practice of selling abroad
the produce of no-cost labor industrial
or agricultural, at prices which cannot
be met by countries which MAINTAIN
normal working standards. Grain grown
on Russian state farms is "sweated
goods" in British estimation. Amer
ican farmers would be face to face with
the same competition the moment Rus
sian produce were admitted into the
United States.
Under ordinary circumstances the
termination of their trade agreement
would cause breach between Great
Britain and Russia. Both are deriving
benefit from their commercialintercourse.
One of the first acts of the Labor gov
ernment, under Prime Minister Ramsay
Macdonald, when it took Office for the
second time in 1929, was to re-establlSh
diplomatic and commercial relations
with Russia, which had been broken
off during the period Labor was out
of power. The present National gov
ernment has seen fit to maintain re-
lations with the Soviet, mainly be-
cause of British industry's need OF the
Soviet market. Great Britain remains
anxious to extend its trade with Russia
and is ready to enter discussions to
that end at the earliest possible mo-
ment. Thus the denunciation of the
existing treaty threatens only tenn
porary interruption of commercial in
tercourSe.
The lesson Of the incident lies in the
determination of the imperial govern
ment to leave no stone unturned to
carry out the spirit of the Ottawa
agreement, which aims at Tightening
empire economic bonds all along the
line. 1t is Britannia first" The
Ottawa agreements, about to undergo
exhaustive debate in the House of
Commons, face a hot fire of opposition
from the Liberals, actuated by their
unwavering devotion to free trade. 1t
is the governments plain purpose to
leave no argument unexpected to secure
ratification Of the Ottawa pacts. The
fear that Canada may become COM
mercially and financially more and
more dependent upon the United States
has already been cited in Parliament
as one Of the reasons why Britain must
shrink from nothing capable of linking
up the fortunes of the empire for its