I beg to move, That a committee be appointed to consider the position of our export trade and the means to be taken to obtain the necessary markets; that the committee shall consist of a judge of the High Court as chairman and six Members of the House of Commons, two of whom to be nominated by the Government, two by the Conservative party, and two by the Liberal party; that three of the Members shall be Cabinet or ex-Cabinet Ministers and the other three shall possess business or trade qualifications; and that the committee be requested to report to the House prior to the Summer Recess. I would ask my fellow Members on this occasion to divest themselves of all party feeling and to examine the position in the light of present circumstances, and to consider what steps can be taken to meet a crying danger. I hope that they will recognise that the dogmas of the 18th century and the dogmas of the 19th century can have but little bearing upon the position of to-day. Our population is over 40,000,000. In England we have 649 people per square mile, and in Scotland 164 per square mile. Great Britain cannot produce either the food for her people or the raw material on which they can work. We have to buy enormous quantities abroad and to import them. In 1922 we paid £470,000,000 for food, tobacco and drink, and we paid nearly £300,000,000 for the raw materials for our factories. In addition, we purchased manufactured goods to the extent of over £560,000,000. [HON MEMBERS: "NO!"] I can give you the Board of Trade figures, which are in my pocket. We paid for these imports by the sale of over £750,000,000 of manufactured goods, coal and raw material, by the work we did for people in other countries, such as shipping, banking and insurance, and by the use of the interest on accrued capital. We cannot produce one quarter of our foodstuff and we have to buy abroad. We must sell our manufactured goods and work for other people in order to pay for the imports. The time is fast approaching when we must either make fresh arrangements for dealing with the export of our manufactured goods or we must weaken our country by excessive emigration.

My fear for the export business is based largely upon the fact that many countries in Europe are no longer in a position to pay for the goods which they require, unless they can find markets in which to sell the goods which they themselves manufacture. But almost every country in Europe can manufacture as cheaply as we can. With education, with modern machinery that is doing away with the skill of the handworker, with rapid transportation, with telegraphy and wireless, there is little reason why one country should manufacture more cheaply than any other civilised country. The great markets for manufactured goods in the future must be found largely, I believe, in the Eastern hemisphere, where the hot sun is inclined to produce a disinclination for labour, save that needed to encourage Nature to produce her own fruits, which can be shipped in payment for the manufactured goods produced in more temperate climates. I would like to deal with three or four of our biggest exports in the past. Take coal, for instance. It now costs 75 per cent. more than it cost before the War, and, in addition, you have a high cost of transport. No-one can claim, considering the cost of living, that the wage either of the miner or of the sailor is commensurate with the value of their work. In addition, in some countries coal is not needed as much as in olden days. We have now electricity produced by water power, not only on the American continent, but in Italy, where the demand for coal is not nearly as great as it once was. Other countries are going ahead with electricity. Then we have liquid fuel and natural gas in some countries, and these may become a factor in manufactures.

Take cotton goods. We all realise that our exports in olden days consisted very largely of cotton and woollen goods. I was reading not long ago the statistics for 1828, 1829 and 1830, and I discovered that our total exports of produce and manufactured goods made in England amounted to £35,000,000 to £36,000,000, and that only £22,000,000 consisted of cotton and woollen goods. We have always been accustomed to rely on the American cotton crop for our raw material, but those of us who know something about the cotton crops in America fully believe that it is almost impossible to get larger crops than from 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 bales per annum; unless there is some new method of picking adopted we cannot count upon getting more than 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 bales from America. America is using large quantities of cotton herself, and she is bound to go on using more, and the day is not far distant when America will use the whole of her crop and ship manufactured goods instead of the raw material. Unless we can arrange to obtain our cotton in sufficient quantities at reasonable prices, the outlook for our cotton exports is uncommonly bad. In the Empire there are places like Pondoland and Rhodesia, to say nothing of the Sudan and other places, in which experts agree that illimitable quantities of cotton can be produced and picked and exported. I know this question is being studied and that work is being done in connection with it, but the call of our manufacturers and workers is so strong that we ought to make a point that nothing is left undone to ensure our getting the cotton we require. As to wool, there is nothing to prevent the various portions of the Empire from selling both wool and rubber to foreign countries and allowing them to use it for their own factories, unless some arrangement can be made between the component parts of the Empire.

Let me say a word about our shipping, because our export business depends very largely on our shipping. We can still expect to make profits out of it, but we must not overlook the fact that America is determined to have a big merchant fleet of her own, and if by any chance the flag discrimination contained in the Jones Bill is adopted, there is no doubt that many of the cargoes that our ships have been accustomed to carry will not be forthcoming. One of the greatest troubles of the shipping world is that so many ships have been built in the past few years. We have to-day some 667,000 tons of British shipping lying idle for which there is no employment and many charters are made to-day at rates which are not profitable. We can only hope that confidence will be restored in Europe at an early date, that European markets may be revived and remunerative international trade again carried on.

Europe, however, cannot provide the food and the raw materials for which we have to pay in cash. The cash as we know is obtained by the sale of our manufactured goods, by the interest on our investments and by services rendered. I am heartily in favour of doing everything in our power to help the reconstruction of European trade, but prices in Europe may be too low to permit of a living wage being paid to the British worker who manufactures the goods. I believe the time has come when we should try to find new markets to add to the old markets. I believe they can be found. May I remind the House briefly of how our trade was built up, because, looking at the circumstances to-day, we should realise the vicissitudes through which we have passed. Until the time of Queen Elizabeth we were a pastoral country; we were not colonising then to any extent. Holland, Portugal, Spain had gone ahead with their colonies, but it was not until Spain with wealth collected from the East built the Armada and tried to conquer England that we were roused up and went in for colonising. We built up markets throughout the world and carried on a fair trade. Hegel, the great German philosopher, wrote of England: The material existence of England is based on commerce and industry and the English have undertaken the weighty responsibility of being missionaries of civilisation to the world for their commercial spirit urges them to traverse every sea and land, and to form connections with barbarous peoples, to create wants and stimulate industry and, first and foremost, to establish among them the condition necessary to commerce, namely, the relinquishment of a life of violence, respect for property, civility to strangers. Then came the European wars of the 18th century, followed by the Napoleonic Wars. England was the only great country which was not invaded and devastated. She progressed in her manufacturing, owing to the enterprise and energy of our merchants and manufacturers and the brains and ingenuity of men like Arkwright, Cartwright, Hargreaves, Watt, Stephenson, and men like them, who revolutionised the methods of manufacture and the means of transport. When the wars were over, we found ourselves in a position to supply the devastated countries with manufactured goods. We had, however, great distress among the working classes in England—greater than to-day—and very low wages. I think it was due to the belief that if the import taxes on food were taken off there would be a reduction in the cost of living and a cheaper cost of production, that the so-called Free Trade we have had for some years was brought about. It was then that our merchants and manufacturers felt that the Colonial markets were useless, because trade was then carried on by means of sailing ships. There were neither cables nor a fast letter post, and long periods had to elapse before any returns could come in from the cargoes that were shipped. It meant that money used in that way was only turned over once, while money used in European business could be turned over two or three times. I desire that this should be neither a Protectionist speech nor a Free Trade speech. As far as I can, I will steer clear of both. I would point out, however, that it was only when the European market came along—and it was a good market—that our merchants and manufacturers thought it was not necessary to keep up the Colonial markets. It was then that Cobden used the celebrated words: The colonial system with all its dazzling appeals to the passions of the people can never be got rid of except by the indirect process of Free Trade which will gradually weaken the ties which unite the Colonies to us through a mistaken idea of self-interest. We want all the European trade we can get. Undoubtedly we made money out of it, and good money, and there are many rich men who can truthfully say that their family fortunes were founded in those days. To-day, however, I am sure the House will agree with me when I say the European markets are not promising, and it seems to me that the time has come when to carry on a proper export business we should strive urgently to get other markets to add to the old markets. I am asking that a Committee shall be appointed to look into this matter, and I am sure hon. Members realise the sort of Committee which I have in mind. I suggest there should be a Judge of the High Court as Chairman and six Members of the House of Commons, two nominated by the Government, two by the Conservative party, and two by the Liberal party. Three of the members, I suggest, should be Cabinet Ministers or ex-Cabinet Ministers, and the other three should possess business or trade qualifications. [HON. MEMBERS: "Why?"] I can tell hon. Members why. I want this Committee when it reports to the country to have behind its Report men who are entirely regardless of their political labels, men who are known to the country as good servants of the State. I hope the Committee will not look at the matter from any party standpoint, but will go into the question to see what can be done to increase our export business. If the Committee is appointed—and I trust the President of the Board of Trade will see his way to recommend it—I hope their meetings will be held in public and that the evidence will be given before the public, so that the people of England may know our exact position. We all acknowledge that our country has been through a very hard time. It has had a vast load to carry, but we are not beaten. We have been through many serious times before, and I recall what Emerson said about us after the Crimean War: I see her, not dispirited, not weak, well remembering that she has seen dark days before—indeed with a kind of instinct that she always sees a little better on a cloudy day, and that in storm of battle and calamity she has a secret vigour and a pulse like cannon. I see her in her old age, not decrepit, but still young, still daring to believe in her power of endurance and expansion, and seeing this, I say: 'All hail.' That is what an American said about us after the Crimean War, when we were going through hard days. To-day we are going through them, but if our country will only recollect her great past, her power in forcing forward civilisation and in keeping peace, if she will only recollect that she has in the Empire a great body of civilised people who want to see peace maintained and commerce pursued, and if we can get a committee that will go into this question and report to this House the beet steps to take in order to produce the desired markets, I believe it will be good for us.