473
CO.885/25
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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Question (b).
We support the resolution of the Nineteenth Annual Congress, 1916, of the Association of the Chambers of Commerce of South Africa, relating to Custome tariffs, trading with the enemy, and naturalization, the text being given in the accompanying report.
We advocate manufacturing on a larger scale, and endeavours being made to secure a better understanding between labour and capital.
Question (c).
Efforts should be made to develop the latent resources of the country at Duch greater rate of progress than at present.
We recommend :-
a
(1) The formation of a local committee, supported by the Government and having wide powers to investigate and expedite the development of the resources and industries of the country.
(2) General scientific education.
(3) Technical education.
(4) Native industrial education.
Extending and increasing scientific investigation.
(6) The institution of travelling and research scholarships.
The thorough investigation of diseases affecting the development of
resources.
The establishment of industrial banks. -
(9) The subsidizing, where necessary, of industries which are important to
the welfare or development of the Empire.
(10) The subsidizing of ocean freights and land transport where proved to
be necessary or desirable.
(11) The encouragement of emigration to British territories and its discour-
agement elsewhere.
(12) The unification of patent laws.
Question (d).
Establishment within the Empire of machinery to deal with all Empire
products.
The compulsory marking of all imported goods, where possible, with the country of origin.
An explanatory note is attached, which sets out in fuller detail the above views and recommendations.
ANNEXE
ACCOMPANYING MEMORANDUM re DESPATCH FROM THE Secretary of StaTE FOR THE COLONIES DAted 25th SEPTEMBER, 1916.
IT is clear that if our Empire is going to hold its own against Germany and the methods she is introducing into what may be called her subject-countries, e.g., Austria, Bulgaria, etc., that all sections must pull together; consequently we must endeavour by every means possible to increase the production of raw and manufac tured materials and articles from every part of the Empire, and for our part from Rhodesia. Great Britain and her colonies must become in fact one united body. It might then be possible to arrange a scientific as well as a patriotic tariff. There would seem to be no reason why the Empire should not establish a specially heavy tariff against our present enemies and a lesser one against neutrals. Such tariff, in the case of our enemies, to provide inter alia the amount required to meet all pen- sions rendered necessary as a result of the War. Preferential treatment would, of course, be accorded to our Allies.
We therefore support the resolution passed at the Nineteenth Annual Congress of the Association of the Chambers of Commerce of South Africa, which reads as follows:-
(a) That the Customs tariff of the Union of South Africa be amended so as to provide for:
(1) A substantial rebate in favour of the products and manufactures of the
British Empire.
(2) The principle of Customs preference to our Allies, provided they recip-
rocate.
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(3) Reciprocal tariff relations with other countries-but in no case placing other countries on an equality with the British Empire or its Allies.
inents.
(4) A special tariff against the products and manufactures of the present enemy countries-on such a scale, and for such a period, as may be agreed upon at the Conference between the Imperial and Dominion Govern-
(b) That differential charges against all enemy shipping be made at the South African ports in accordance with the resolutions of the Paris Conference.
(c) That no trading licences be issued to enemy subjects or to agents of enemy firms, provided that there shall be reasonable safeguards in respect of existing licences.
(d) That, subject to any agreement which may be made between Great Britain and her Allies, no foreign patents should be allowed to be held in this country unless they are worked, or the articles so patented are made, in the British Empire.
(e) That enemy subjects holding certificates of British naturalization shall be required, within a reasonable period of the conclusion of peace, to produce papers of denaturalization from the country of their origin, or satisfy a competent authority of their inability to obtain them.
Enclosure 2: Question (a).
What industries are essential to the future safety of the nation and what
steps should be taken to maintain or establish them?
In our memorandum a list of economic mineral and vegetable products will be found.
•
Special attention should be given to chrome ore, copper, asbestos, maize, tobacco, and ground-nuts. Chrome ore, copper, and asbestos, are all of the utmost import- ance to the British Empire. The bulk of our copper output in Southern Rhodesia contains gold and requires to be treated electrolytically, but, as facilities for this treatment are not available in Great Britain, it has to be shipped to the United States. Germany is well equipped with plant for the refining of base metals, and this copper would undoubtedly have been shipped there had the War not broken out, as suitable facilities did not exist in Great Britain.
All the products mentioned in our memorandum-mineral, vegetable, and animal-are of a nature to assist in making the Empire self-supporting and inde- pendent in regard to industries connected with both trade and warfare.
We consider it to be a matter of the greatest importance that machinery should be organized throughout the Empire for dealing with all the essential products of British territory, and that such should be controlled by British subjects and capital.
Question (b).
What steps should be taken to recover home and foreign trade lost during
the War, and to secure new markets?
We believe that legislation will be of little usc in connexion with the recovery of foreign trade and securing of new markets unless British manufacturers and their employees work hand in hand more than they have done heretofore. If they continue on pre-war lines no possible legislation will enable Great Britain to hold her share of the world's trade.
There seems to be general agreement that the enactment of protective duties, perhaps temporary, will be necessary to safeguard nascent competition. It would, however, be withholding progress and laying ourselves open to a recrudescence of present conditions to impose tariffs neutralizing the advantages of other nations due to attainments based on a better standard of knowledge and better application of it, unless we go quickly to the root of the matter by a vigorous policy of general scientific education of the kind that will sharpen perception, imagination, mental outlook, and intellectual keenness. Technical and industrial efficiency can only spring successfully from such.
It is essential that British goods should be of first-class quality, and be marketed at a price to compete with foreign goods, and this can only be done by better organization, thoroughly efficient work, manufacturing in many cases on a larger scale, and a much more sympathetic attitude between manufacturers and
workmen.