§ Mr. PAGE CROFTBefore the House adjourns I desire to call attention to the question of the total lack of organisation which at present exists in connection with Imperial affairs, and the failure of His Majesty's Government to carry out the proposals which have been so frequently pressed by the Prime Ministers of the Dominions at recent Conferences. At this time when we have seen great internal strife as a result of industrial discontent we want to press with all the vigour we possess upon His Majesty's Government, and upon the public outside, the necessity for a reconsideration of the whole Imperial position, and also to make clear our opinion that we are guilty of great folly in not endeavouring to secure for our workers the great industrial future which the British Empire holds out. We have had six years of incessant party warfare in this country over questions of the greatest magnitude, none of which, it is suggested by their authors, will cure the disease from which the nation is suffering. We have had palliatives in great numbers, but curatives none at all. We have all been thinking too much of party and too little of the State, with the result that we have not dealt with these problems as they really are, and have not got to the roots of this question. In this connection, whilst our family quarrels have been continuing in this country proposals of the greatest value have been made by the Prime Ministers of these Overseas Dominions, and this House will hardly dispute the fact that these proposals have been met with scant courtesy, and with very small consideration by people outside, although they are in every respect questions of the greatest magnitude.
If I refer, firstly, to the first Conference which was held under the auspices of His Majesty's Government I would like to make it clear that in doing so I do not entirely exonerate the Unionist party in the past for not having taken greater steps to bring this question home to the people of this country. I would point out, however, that during the last Unionist Administration a great movement in this direction was made almost impossible by the fact that the Government were engaged in dealing with a great war. In the first Conference which was held under the auspices of the present Government, it will be remembered that the Prime Ministers of the 1181 Dominions once more unanimously reaffirmed their proposals for mutual preferential trading between the various parts of the Empire. It will be remembered also that they have shown their good faith in this question in that every one of those Dominions have given a preference to the Mother-country. They have carried it further, and are now proposing inter-Imperial Trade Preference between the various Dominions, with the result that in this great system which is being built up the Government of this country alone holds aloof from the policy which we believe would have as great an effect for good to this country as that policy which binds together the diverse and scattered States of America into the great united country that we know to-day, and by which Prince Bismarck knitted together the heterogeneous States of Germany into the mightiest military nation of the world, and the greatest commercial nation upon the Continent.
Because this question was not raised at the last Imperial Conference we need not imagine that the Dominions do not desire to see it brought forward again at the earliest possible occasion, for the Prime Ministers have repeatedly told us that in their opinion it is now the turn of the Mother-country to move in this respect. But they did bring forward proposals at the last Conference which dealt with this question of trade, which, after all, is of vital importance to the whole prosperity of this country They reaffirmed their desire for an All-Red Steamship Route between the Mother-country and the Dominions. Surely by increasing the communication in this manner we shall be diverting to the Dominions a great deal of the trade which at present goes to foreign countries. Yet we find in this important matter in which the Governments of the Dominions were prepared to contribute that His Majesty's Government have done nothing. They have left the position precisely as it was, with the result that if rumour is correct we understand that the Canadian Home Government, together with some private British financiers, are now endeavouring to deal with this question.
Then there was the question of the All Red Cable Route and establishment of a cable system throughout the British Empire in order that the business, diplomatic, and strategic secrets of this country might be kept in British hands instead of passing as they do at the present moment through foreign hands, in the case of cables 1182 between the Mother-country and the Dominions. Here again we have a question that vitally affects the traders of this country. It is perfectly obvious that in the Dominion of Canada, specially with its vast frontier on the United States, and with the greater telegraphic facilities a great deal of trade must be diverted to the United States which would otherwise come to this country and give employment to our people. The Government have done nothing in this case. We have only had from the Postmaster-General a general statement upon which he thinks he is entitled to congratulate himself, but which we regard as not at all sufficient, namely, that he managed to effect a small reduction of the cable rates, but I think it can also be truly said that he has made it plain that we do not intend in this country to do anything to break down what is practically a monopoly of the whole of the cable lines between this country and the Dominions, and which are in American hands, and which we consider a danger to the business people of this country. Then there is the more delicate question of greater consultation between the Mother-country and the Dominions. I think the last Imperial Conference has made this question one of far greater urgency than ever it was before. There was the question of trade treaties, and the Dominions suggested that in future they will make their own trade treaties. Then there is the question of the Fleet units and Australia's request to make her own Navigation Laws. On all these question I suggest, unless there is some constant and continuous consultation between the Dominion authorities and this country, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the First Lord of the Admiralty might very easily land this country into war. Then again it was plainly expressed by the Australasian delegates at the last Conference that in future they would not approve of the action of His Majesty Government, in a case such as that of the Declaration of London, in deciding upon a policy that affects the Empire as a whole without consultation with the Dominion's representatives. On all these important matters it is essential that there should be some method of closer consultation between the different parts of the Empire.
We shall never get a proper system of Imperial defence until we have a scheme of defence for the British Empire based upon common control, and we should never have a proper alleviation of the 1183 burdens which fall upon the Mother-country unless the Dominions havesome share in the control of the forces, naval and military, which they are disposed to place at the disposal of the Mother-country. If we bear these imperial problems in mind and turn to our home problems, it is easy to prove they are interdependent. What are the problems which confront this country at the present time above all others? First of all there is the increased cost of living. Secondly, the decline in real wages; and thirdly, permanent unemployment; and fourthly, the burden of armaments to which the Chancellor of the Exchequer devoted so much attention yesterday, and which everybody is agreed is a burden which is indeed difficult for this country to bear. We submit these questions can best be dealt with, and can only be dealt with, by securing to the workers in this country the great industrial future the Empire holds out by linking together by cable and by steamships, the traders of the whole Empire, and by bringing together the manpower of our race for the defence of the common weal. If we take these four problems, I believe I can show very briefly that their consummation is entirely dependent upon Imperial organisation. First with regard to the increased cost of living. I believe nobody will deny that that is really responsible for the recent industrial upheavals in this country amongst organised labour, and we have got to face the fact that unless we do something, food will be very much dearer in the future than it is to-day, unless we can increase the production of foodstuffs in the Empire, and therefore if food largely rises in price, we maintain it is the duty of statesmen to secure greater protection to the foodstuffs within the Empire, and consequently so to organise our business arrangements with our Dominions that the Mother-country may have the first call upon those food supplies in preference to the foreigner. We suggest this can only be dealt with in three ways: by preference, by subsidies, or bounties. Unless some such policy is adopted in the near future there is great fear that food will undoubtedly become dearer, and we believe the only way to keep the food of this country cheap is by opening up the virgin acres of the BritishEmpire—
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member is not entitled to discuss future legislation. 1184 He must confine himself specially to administration.
§ Mr. PAGE CROFTI will turn from that subject, merely reiterating that I believe this question must be dealt with in the interests of the consumers of this country. I turn to the second problem which confronts the people of this country, which is the problem of real wages. Without grave injury to the industries of this country, I maintain you cannot raise wages unless you increase the price of commodities or greatly increase the volume of your trade. We are driven to admit that if we establish a rise in wages in this country we must face far fiercer foreign competition in the future. We have to defend our industry from competition which is the result of a minimum wage and the burdens recently placed upon industry, and we must find scope for greater volume of production, and foreign tariffs only make this possible in the markets of the Mother-country and our Dominions overseas. In that way only can wages be raised, and in that way only can we absorb in our industrial system the unemployment which at the present moment is cutting the whole standard of wages down. We submit, if the House would regard this question in a non-party spirit in the same way as we regard naval questions, there is sufficient potentiality in the British Empire to give employment to the whole of this country, and, in addition, to raise the price of labour throughout the Mother-country.
Since the Dominions gave the preference to this country a marvellous change has come over our trade. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that the Dominions at the present moment are saving the situation every year. We find last year Australia, situated twelve or thirteen thousand miles away, with its five millions of people, bought more manufactured goods from this country than Germany, with its sixty-five millions of people across the North Sea. We find that New Zealand, with a population of only one-seventh that of Belgium, bought more manufactured goods from this country than Belgium, and that seven million Canadians gave more wages to the British working man last year than forty-five million Frenchmen twenty-one miles across the English Channel. These facts entirely alter the whole position. In the old days it was a question of considering whether preference to the Colonies would not be a sacrifice. To-day we have to realise that the Dominions are saving the situation for 1185 labour in this country, and that we owe to the Dominions themselves an enormous increase in wages for our industrial people. If we consider for one moment that in the year 1910 Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Russia, and Switzerland, with 281,000,000 people bought £67,400,000 worth of manufactures in this country, and Australia, South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand, with 13,000,000 people, bought £68,700,000 worth of manufactures from this country, we realise that those 13,000,000 people in our Colonies bought more than the 281,000,000 people in our neighbouring great markets in Europe. Four of our Dominions bought £80,000,000 worth of manufactured produce last year, with a population of 13,000,000 people, and can anyone deny that in thirty years' time that population will have become 52,000,000, and if we keep the comparative position we hold to-day that means that we shall be doing a trade of £320,000,000 annually with those countries, or an increase of £240,000,000 within the next thirty years in our trade, or £120,000,000 extra in wages for the workers of this country, simply by instituting a proper business arrangement with our Colonies and keeping that position for ourselves? The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission asserted that if £10,000,000 extra could be circulated amongst the unemployed we could cure unemployment. I maintain that with the enormous increase of our trade to which I have alluded we could circulate £120,000,000 extra in wages in this country, and if that is so hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway will realise that this is the one way of permanently insuring the working classes against bad times and securing a greater amount of employment for the people living in our midst.
Our Empire trade employs twice as many men as we have in the mines of this country. It gives twice as much employment as the great army of miners we have recently seen out on strike, and without our Empire trade we should have at least three times as many unemployed as we have at the worst times. With these facts in mind, can there be any further hesitation that it is necessary to insure this vast wage bill for our workers before it is too late, more especially realising that foreign countries have their trade agents swarming over our Dominions trying to secure the trade which we ought to have if we act on business lines?
§ Mr. SPEAKERHow does the hon. Member propose to alter that state of things except by legislation?
§ Mr. CROFTBy the trade agent system, Consular agents, closer cable communications, and better emigration organisations, all of which could be carried out under the present system.
§ Mr. SPEAKERIf the hon. Member means that is his solution, of course [...]he is entitled to proceed; but if he has in the back of his mind, as I rather think he has, Colonial Preference, that is a question which cannot be discussed to-day upon the Motion for Adjournment, because it involves legislation, and we cannot discuss legislation on this occasion.
§ The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. Herbert Samuel)Will it be in order to discuss a State-owned cable in our Debate to-day, because I think that would involve legislation.
§ Mr. CROFTMay I ask whether we can discuss the questions raised at the last Conference with which the Government intend to deal?
§ Mr. SPEAKERAnything can be discussed which does not require legislation. This is the opportunity for criticising the administration, and if the hon. Member has any fault to find with the Colonial Office, the Board of Trade, or any other office, now is the time; but so far as legislation is concerned that is a question which cannot be discussed now.
§ Mr. CROFTI have a great desire to criticise the past action of His Majesty's Government, and I do not intend to sketch out any definite proposals. What I was endeavouring to do was to criticise the inaction of the Government in the past. I will now turn to the question of the burden of armaments. Every single party in this country admits the danger of the burden of armaments continuing at the present rate. Is it unreasonable to hope that it will make a very great difference if we are sympathetic in our treatment of the Colonies in regard to the burden of armaments which exists in this country? Compare the generous policy of our Dominions with regard to trading with this country with what I regard as the selfish policy of the Government in refusing to meet them half way owing to the immutable laws of Cobden, which are mutable with regard to the Insurance Bill and the Minimum Wage Bill, but which are 1187 immutable in regard to matters affecting our Colonies. Those laws are only considered immutable when we are dealing with our kinsmen across the seas. We have recently had a great warning in this respect from America. The whole world has been at the feet of Canada, and yet the Mother-country has refused to treat with her in regard to some very important questions. With regard to all those great Imperial questions the Government has done nothing, and the Colonial Office alone remains in the same position it was in one hundred years ago. I do not believe that the Secretary of State for the Colonies really desires to remain longer in that position. I really believe that his conservatism in this respect would stagger even the hon. Baronet the Member for the City of London (Sir F. Banbury), because he refuses in any way to meet the changed conditions of the times.
We make this appeal to the Government not only because, as Imperialists, we desire to see some return given to the Dominions for the great trade concessions they have made for us, and for their great gifts of "Dreadnoughts" and Fleet units which they are now building up, but because we feel just as much as hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway the condition of the workers of this country to be going backward instead of forward, and we maintain that the only way we can solve these great social difficulties with which we are confronted in this country is by the organisation of our Imperial forces and by endeavouring to put our whole Imperial policy upon a business footing. For that reason we ask the Government to look differently upon these questions, because we realise the vast increase in trade which has taken place in the last few years, and we believe that by this means alone can we really solve the difficulties which surround us which are agitating our country and blighting the lives of so many thousands of our citizens, and at the same time are keeping the standard of wages low and the price of food high. We ask them to look at it from this point of view, and I believe, if the Government were to take any action on a non-party basis in improving the position with regard to the Empire, they would find that every single Member on these benches would support them to the best of their ability.
Sir GILBERT PARKERI did not quite understand, Sir, whether you gave 1188 any reply to the Postmaster-General. I wish to know whether we should be in order in discussing the action of this Government in proposing, for instance, a State-aided cable to Canada, Australia, or any other of the Dominions?
§ Major ARCHER-SHEEOn a point of Order, I would point out that before the last Imperial Conference it was decided that unless reductions in cable rates were carried out a subsidiary conference should be held. Those who wish to raise the question are simply calling attention to the fact that the Government have not called that subsidiary conference together.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is a point which can be properly discussed now. With regard to a State-aided cable, I am not quite so sure whether legislation would be necessary. I should think an anuual Vote of Supply would cover it, but I do not like at a moment's notice to give any definite answer to that question. It is evident, however, the other matters with regard to proposing tariffs with foreign countries with a view of promoting Imperial Preference cannot be discussed to-day.
§ Mr. HEWINSMay I ask you, Sir, whether your ruling would prevent our raising the question of the action of the Foreign Office with regard to recent commercial treaties?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI should like to hear what particular question the hon. Member wishes to raise.
§ Major ARCHER-SHEEI wish to deal with that part of the question raised by my hon. Friend which does not require special legislation, but which refers to the trade between this country and the Crown Colonies, Dependencies, and Protectorates of the Empire, including India, as distinguished from the self-governing Dominions. At the last Imperial Conference it was decided that a Royal Commission should be appointed to inquire into the trade between the self-governing Dominions and the Mother-country and between all parts of the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, but in the terms of reference there was nothing to show they were to inquire into the trade between the Crown Colonies, Dependencies, and Protectorates and the Mother-country. These parts of the Empire, including India, in 1910 had a total trade of £372,000,000 in exports and imports, and out of that the United Kingdom had only £141,000,000 of that trade. I wish to deal first of all 1189 with the Crown Colonies, Dependencies, and Protectorates apart from India. These parts of the Empire had a total trade of £175,000,000, and the United Kingdom only had £51,000,000 of that trade. The Mother-country only got 26 per cent. as regards imports; in other words, she only got something like one-quarter of the trade, three-quarters of it going to other parts of the Empire and to foreign countries. In regard to the export trade of those parts of the Empire, the Mother-country only got 33 per cent. It is quite true that other parts of the Empire got a large percentage. This point was raised yesterday in an answer I received from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. J. M. Robertson) who pointed out with regard to the trade of the Straits Settlements that something like £16,000,000 was transhipment of foreign goods, and was not really export trade at all. There was included in that sum of £16,000,000 no less than £8,000,000 of British goods transhipped to foreign countries. Therefore, giving credit for £8,000,000 of British goods for transhipment, there still remains a balance of exports to foreign countries of £24,000,000, as against only £24,000,000 sent to the United Kingdom. We are spending over £1,000,000 in administering those parts of the Empire, and we are also spending over £2,000,000 in the military defence as distinguished from the naval defence of those parts of the Empire, and, in view of that fact, and also in view of the fact that we have at the present time 20,000 soldiers garrisoning the various ports and Protectorates of the Empire, I say that our share of that trade is nothing like adequate.
I suggest this is not a party question. We should look at it entirely from the point of view of existing circumstances, and not from any point of view which involves a change in our fiscal system. These Crown Colonies, Protectorates, and Dependencies have been saddled with the same fiscal system as the Mother-country, and, personally, I believe that to a very large extent is the cause of our not doing more trade with them, but, even under the present system, it would be possible in the case of nearly all those Crown Colonies and Protectorates to give a preference without legislation. Nearly every one of them has a tariff for revenue purposes, and it would be possible to give the Mother-country a preference in that tariff without hurting the feelings of hon. Members opposite who do not like the idea of 1190 departing from Free Trade. If the Government were to give that preference in the existing revenue tariff, the Mother-country would get a great deal more of their trade than at the present time. An hon. Member asked me what would happen to the revenue of those Crown Colonies and Protectorates. The revenue could be increased on foreign goods and diminished on our goods. That is not a protective policy; it is simply giving a preference to the Mother-country. I would in support of that put forward this view: that our competitors in the Colonies take very good care that we shall not enter their markets on the same footing as the Mother-country. Holland, France, and Germany in every case see that the tariffs in their dependencies and colonies are so framed as to favour the Mother-country rather than foreigners. I suggest that we take a leaf out of their book, and in so doing I am sure we cannot offend against the tenets of Free Trade.
Then, again, we could increase our trade by sending out to the Colonies and Protectorates experts as Trade Commissioners, commercial agents, in the same way as other countries do which are trying to develop their trade in foreign parts. Canada is sending out specially trained men for that purpose. I have in my hand a list of the Trade Commissioners for Canada. There are twenty-seven of them, and they are sent out for the sole purpose of pushing the trade of Canada, and to find out opportunities for increasing it. In addition to that there are Canadian Trade Commissioners in nearly every important market in the world and nearly every self-governing Dominion. They have three in the West Indies and one each in Australasia and South Africa. So much for Canada. Let us turn to America. America, although her border line is next door to Canada, for the sole purpose of pushing American trade in Canada, are doing exactly the same thing. So too is Germany. Why should we, who in this country which prides itself on having such an enormous export and import trade, fall behind other nations in this respect? We have only four or five of these paid Commissioners, one in each of our principal self-governing Dominions. But if we were to develop that service and send our Trade Commissioners to such groups of our Crown Colonies as the West Indies and those in the Pacific, and on the Atlantic, 1191 the result would be that our trade would enormously increase. It should be the duty of these Trade Commissioners to ascertain the character of foreign competition, to discover new openings for British trade, to assist British firms in finding local agents, to inquire into the question of transportation, to report on the opportunities that exist for the establishment of branch British factories, and to send home for the inspection of British manufacturers samples of goods which are underselling and undercutting the exports of this country.
That is especially the case in India, where an enormous trade is done by foreign countries—much larger than the statistics show—in selling imitations of British goods in the bazaars. If we had Trade Commissioners they could send home these articles, and our manufacturers would no doubt be able to meet that competition. They could also send home information as to the opportunities that exist for procuring in India and other parts of the Empire the raw material necessary for manufactures in this country. The statistics as regards trade in the Crown Colonies are exceedingly misleading, because they are based on the Customs Returns, which only record the countries in which the goods are manufactured. It is probable that 50 per cent. of the goods shipped from British ports are of foreign origin. I would in that connection like to draw attention to the way in which statistics of Indian imports are published at present. Since 1906 our trade with India has drooped from 66 per cent. to 61 per cent. There is no doubt whatever that a very large proportion has been wrongly described as British trade when it should be described as foreign trade, although it is shipped in British bottoms to India. Only last year I put a question to the President of the Board of Trade, and he said that in future the Returns should show the country of origin. But even with these statistics we shall not really be able to discover exactly what the foreign trade of India is, because a very large amount of goods are shipped to this country and landed in London or some other port and are then reshipped to the East. They are shown as British exports when, as a fact, they are foreign exports. In India, in all probability, our trade is not more than 55 per cent. of the whole. That is not a satisfactory condition of affairs. There the total trade is 1192 £197,000,000 a year, and if that is not a place where we ought to have Trade Commissioners I cannot conceive of any country in the world where we should. It is quite true we have very excellent statistical reports from administrators in every part of India. These administrators are some of the best in the world, but then they have no commercial training. All their lives have been spent in administration, and they cannot be expected to give the manufacturers and merchants of this country all the information which they require. It is absurd to expect it. The only way in which this information can be obtained for this country is by sending specially trained experts to these parts of the Empire in the same way as other nations do. I say we are not doing enough to promote our trade. The first duty of any Government is to promote the trade of the country, and I therefore strongly urge on the Government to try and push the trade of the country along the lines I have indicated.