No Freedom Lobby
The anxiety of the Lancashire cotton industry about the prospect of having to meet more Japanese competition in the export markets is understandable. Certainly the Socialist Mr. Harold Wilson and the Conservative Mr. Ralph Assheton laboured hard in the Commons debate on Wednesday to make that anxiety clear. The Lancashire lobby is obviously a powerful force if it can stir up such a loud outcry over some rather small changes within the framework of the 1951 trade agreement with Japan. If, on this occasion, the Government failed to consult the industries affected by the latest renewal of that agreement because it did not consider such consultation to be part of its duty, it is pretty clear now that failure to consult next time will only be possible by an act of deliberate concealment. The Lancashire lobby is likely to achieve that much. But where is the freedom lobby ? Who is to speak with equal force and determination- for those industries—aircraft, cars, electrical equipment, precision engineering—whose interest is not to cut down Japanese exports but to increase Japanese imports ? Who is to speak for the general mass of the population, inside Lancashire as well as outside, which stands to gain by an increased volume of trade, even if the cotton industry does have to fight harder and make itself more efficient more quickly ? The Conservative Government cannot itself perform this function. The Conservative party still has its protectionist wing, and Mr. Maudling on WednesdaY, although not on the defensive, made no general statement in favour of freer trade. It seems that it is up to the more trade' industries to shout as loud as the 'less trade' industries.
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