MR. PHILIP SNOWDEN AND BRITISH EXPORT TRADE [To the Editor

of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,— It has been interesting to watch, in subsequent issues of Your journal, the waves of agreement or criticism which have surged against the article "British Trade with America," and the letter " A Suggestion for Bankers," which appeared on January 30th and February 13th respectively. The Anglo- Saxon surface of the Spectator is, obviously, very wide.

Dealing first with " British Trade with Americo," I was glad to note, in your issue of May 1st, the letter signed " American," which gives the fullest support to the arguments and sugges- tions contained in both my communications. "possible plan for building up British Trade in America" affords a complete parallel of suggestion. For instance, " American " writes :

"As comparatively few concerns can afford the big expense of exclusive trade development, it is necessary for many makers to

sell through a common clearing agency."

again :

" This clearing agency should be in the form of au incorporated Company (limited liability company) in which British makers and American distributors both hold stock."

In the' article of January 30th, I wrote : •

"1. The average British manufacturer and the average British manufacturing company have no surplus cash or reeerves of capital to draw upon for expensive selling trips to the United States, which must be prolonged in order to obtain results. They are handicapped by the high cost of raw materials, of labour, of power ; many of them are crushed by taxation and are defeated by the high Import Duties on their British specialities. . . .

" Why should not a group of U.S.A. capitalists start a sort of clearing-house in England for the consideration and distribution in the U.S.A. of British goods produced in accord with the British traditions ? . . . There are good things in (.4 r ea t Britain worth broad- casting in the New World."

Your AMerican correspondent 'suggests that such a Clearing House should be international between the two countries. All the better ! Will " American " co-operate with a British financial effort to form such a Clearing Honse ? I also note that " American" confirms my statement :

" The right traveller or salesman for a country abroad is, or should be, a native of that country."

It is equally interesting to note that during the debate in the House of Commons On Empire Trade on April 29th, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister, President of the Board of Trade, is reported in the Press as haying said :

"Four or five firms might put up the money to have one smart man on the spot. • Better that they should get an order between them than that the order should go to a foreign competitor."

There is much more in Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister's speech e,aermane to this matter. But if the President of the Board of Trade. would substitute 400-500 firms for his four or five firms, he would be sponsoring a movement which might be really effective in restoring British Export Trade. Why cannot his Department, or the affiliated Department of Over- seas Trade, extend the idea of the British Industries Fair at the White City, and carry round the World a "Buy Britain's Best "campaign housed in an Empire ship in which" Britain at Work" might be filmed Could not the Admiralty lend a Cruiser ?

In your issue of May 1st there was also an article signed" X" which is pregnant with suggestion and support. The article refers to a proposal which is now receiving the consideration of the Committee on Industry and Trade.. In the article occurs this sentence : " According to this proposal the necessary capital would be provided by loans furnished or guaranteed by the Government." On February 13th I made the following suggest ions : "

I. That .a sum of El50,000-£200.000 he made available now to hit the British Dominions and the foreign markets of the world with a" Buy from Britain "campaign voiced by travellers andemphasized in advertisements.

" 2. That our Joint Stock Banks provide this fund and that tho Covernment should endorse it. i.e., guarantee it.

" 3. That British manufacturers and traders pay sums varying from £300 to £600, according to the character of their manufactured goods and the nature of their appeal to the markets of the world, in two equal annual instalments. giving their firms' trade aceoptances or their underwriting letters to the bank's Fund, whereby M two years the banks would be repaid the whole of their capital sum and would only look to the Clovernment for any marginal loss."

In regard to the suggested financial support from the Government and the British Banks, my scheme would amor- tize or repay the capital fund, by reason of the individual sub- scriptions or underwritings of the 400-500 British manufac- turing firms, instead of Sir Philip Cunliffe's-Lister's four or

live co-operating firms. • By two ex-Chancellors of the Exchequer and the present Chancellor I have had administered the usual chloroform of courtesy, expressing " interest " in the article and letter referred to.

ilut from a fourth ex-Chancellor I have received a carefully considered communication, which constitutes, at the moment, the one serious attempt among them to deal with the matter.

Mr. Philip Snowden has authorized me to quote, fro. m a letter I received from him, the following paragraphs : "To carry out the first of the two suggestions you make at the end of your article on page 159 would require some appeal to the American capitalists and it would be a wise and remunerative expenditure of public money to spend it on advertisement of British goods in America. I agree with you that it would be much better to spend money on tryme, to sell. British goods in -foreign markets -than to spend it on attracting goods to this country from the Dominions, which often come into competition with the llama product. It is a common and well-founded complaint that the

banks will not, like any enterprising business man, take moderate risks in advancing credit to young traders, and for the financing of promising new ideas. The banks are quite well enough off to afford

moderate risk. New enterprises, if successful, are usually more than ordinarily profitable, and, On the average, the banks would probably not lose at all by this policy. But their primary function is to encourage trade, and they make such huge profits on the great bulk of the business they do which involves no risk that they ought to set cside some part of their profits to encourage new. enterprises.

The practical scheme you outline in your letter to the Sp-draw- of February 13th seems to provide the basis of a plan. The very moderate sum you mention mould be nothing at all to the wealthy ,Joint Stock Banks. They could afford to lose that without ever knowing it."

If. while Mr. Lloyd George is still lost in the Milky Way be- tween his "New Heaven and a New Earth," and the Com-

munists are out for a Red Hell, a Conservative Government would be like Heaven in this, that It Helped Those Who Help Themselves, then Its support of such a self-amortizing scheme— neither subsidy nor dole—would prove of sterling benefit to

British manufacturers engaged in our Export Trade.—! am,