Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 21 Mai 1924.
I do not rise to make a speech. There is a point my hon. Friend has not made clear regarding purchases per head in the Dominions and abroad, a point also made by my hon. Friend opposite which I think is without foundation if you examine the facts. I felt I must rise to offer one word in that connection. Comparison is made between the purchases per head in Europe. New Zealand, Australia and Canada, but we get no reference, when that argument used, to the fact that trade does not so much follow the flag as the loan, and, as the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillhead (Sir R. Horne) said only a few nights ago, a loan is a credit granted in the lending country to the borrowing country to secure goods from the lending country. May I give one or two facts on that point? The figures for 1916 show that we had invested in the whole of Europe outside Great Britain £240,000,000. In foreign countries outside Europe we had invested £1,600,000,000. In British Possessions this little country had invested over £1,900,000,000. On the argument of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillhead, that involved the exportation of goods. Obviously where you lend your capital goods follow. You have not lent your capital to Europe, and therefore goods have not followed. The contribution that we have made to the Empire is that we have enabled it to come to the finest borrowing market in the world for the cheapest capital in the world, and so long as you maintain your credit and make it better to borrow in the London market than in New York or any other centre, it will not be because they are brothers or cousins that the Dominions will come here for their credits but because it is the finest money market in the world. Follow the lesson laid down by our Chancellor and maintain the credit of the country at its highest, and it is the best contribution you can make to your trade, and above all, as experience shows, to the purchases within the Empire.