FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SI11,—Mr. James H. Weager challenges my statement that steel sheets and plates are not the raw material of any considerable industry in this country. Here are the imports : 1929. 1930.
Tons. Tons.
197,022 162,375
Steel plates and sheets . - • •
Total imports, iron and steel of all descriptions.. 2,816,657 .. 2,908,347
I leave your readers to judge whether five per cent. or six per cent. of the total imports entitle your correspondent to describe my statement as inaccurate.
Your correspondent then tersely dismisses, as " moonshine," my assertion that steel is being dumped over here at twenty per cent., or even twenty-five per cent., under the cost of production. The following facts are confirmed by the National Federation of Iron and Steel Manufacturers : Prior to this country " bumping " off the gold standard, steel bars —the raw material of the steel sheet trade—of which over five hundred thousand tons were imported in 1930, could be purchased at 13 5s., delivered works in South Wales, or, say, £2 12s. 6d. to £2 15s. at works in France, Belgium and the Luxembourg.
After very careful investigation, the cost of production, by the Thomas process, is estimated at £3 19s. at works in France, and £3 12s. in Belgium and Luxembourg. The Federation state that, to the best of their belief, steel sheet and tinplate bars are being sold at an average of £1 per ton under the cost of production in the country of origin. Again, I must leave your readers to judge whether this is " moonshine."
May I, in turn, challenge Mr. Weager's statement, which he complains I misquoted, " that tariffs are being urged solely by interests who will directly profit by them at the cost of our manufacturers and consumers " ? The company with which I am connected not only supply their own raw material in the form of British steel bars to their own finishing works, but export over seventy-five per cent. of their total production of tinplates and galvanized iron to their own subsidiary distri- buting companies in the Dominions and elsewhere. As an individual I can, therefore, claim to speak with equal confidence, and, perhaps, with even greater knowledge than Mr. Weager, of the effect of tariffs on the steel industry of this country.
Your correspondent quotes Sir Peter Rylands with approval. Here, at last, we are agreed, but he does not say how the Government is to give relief to our sorely tried industry. I suggest by replacing doles with work. He might also have mentioned that Sir Peter Rylands is in favour of Safeguarding
the steel trade.—I am, Sir, &c., ALAN DORE. Oxford and Cambridge Club.
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