The statements made by the Secretary for Overseas Trade with regard to the trading methods of totalitarian states, that the only way of dealing with them was so to organize industries so that they would be able to speak as units and say to their opposite numbers in Germany "Unless you are prepared to sell your goods for a reasonable return, we will fight you," is just as applicable to the question of subsidizing shipping and trade. Obviously what it is alleged Germany and Italy are doing is inspired by the urgent need for foreign exchange and it is by the sale of goods abroad that they can hope to secure that very necessary commodity. In order to obtain it, they need to make sure of placing their goods, and the obvious advantage of being able thus to secure exchange more than offsets the actual loss which may be made in the deals. So in the subsidizing of shipping certain foreign countries place the British carrying trade at a disadvantage, and there is a considerable body of public opinion which supports the adoption of similar methods by Great Britain. The latter is equipped with such resources that either form of competition could be made very unprofitable for those who originated it, and, if the British do eventually have to adopt it, it will be because they have been forced to do so in the protection of their own interests. Mr. Hudson's charge in effect is that totalitarian states are selling cheaper, and buying dearer than world prices, and that, as a result, trade throughout the world was being destroyed, But it is clear that such practices cannot continue indefinitely for it is a negation of economic processes which cannot in the long run survive. The question of subsidizing carriage overseas, however, seems to be in a different category but even here it is suggested that the challenge should be met until the whole scheme is found so unprofitable that it will be abandoned by common consent. That shipping subsidies do cut into British trade is evidenced in a comparison of the shipping which calls at a port like Shanghai, and unless Britain is prepared to lose more of this trade she will have to meet the competition with which she is threatened. In all this is not so much to be found a criticism ai the trade policies of the totalitarian states as a recognition of the creation of a state of affairs which Britain in her own interests will be forced to, combat,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.