“After the War”

Abstract

THE final report of the Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy after the War has now been issued; it necessarily deals with such a vast number of complex subjects that it has perforce to content itself with generalities, more or less vague, and gives but few indications upon which any definite line of policy can be based. It is notably weak in what should, perhaps, have been its most important inquiry—namely, as to the utilisation of the natural resources of the Empire to the best advantage in the future; it is significant that the title of the Committee is “on Commercial and Industrial Policy,” instead of “on Industrial and Commercial Policy,” as it logically should have been, seeing that a sound, commercial policy can only be developed upon lines following industrial development, and not vice versa.