LONDON POOL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 42, 19 February 1931, Page 11

LONDON POOL

NEW SEASON'S BUTTER

PICTURESQUE CEREMONY

BETTEBMENT OF TRADE

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 19th December. Between London Bridge and Tower Bridge is what is known as tho London Pool. It is a veritable hive of industry on all working days. Small steamers from Continental ports line each side of tho river, a dozen or so He at anchor in the stream, and innumerable barges are to be seen taking cargo over the side, or providing the. goods for Continental ports. On Tuesday morning one noticed huge piles of foliaga on the quayside. Theso represented thousands of Christmas trees brought from the Continent for the festive season. On that Tuesday morning, a finer bright day, representatives of Australian and New Zealand trade crossed London Bridge or turned out oi' their offices in Tooley Street to taker part in a quite unusual ceremony. Tlius early consignments of butter from tl«i Commonwealth and the Dominion wer«) duo at Hay's Wharf —a great warehouse and wharves beside the soulTa bank of the Pool. The Lord Mayor ccf London as Admiral of the Port, avid the City Sheriffs, were also due bo give prominence to the opening of tb c new Empire butter season. It is only London that can canty out these pleasant ceremonies with ci i--tire dignity. They waste a lot tlif time, and they cannot bo taken t<io seriously. Nevertheless, the economic value of this special one was plain] ly evident before the end of the day. .'lt was arranged by a Committee of Bi.npire butter producers and importers, and with, a picturesqueness which ci floured that millions of people in Enjglini would hear of it or ' see phot; ographs of the ceremony before twentjyfour hours had passed. A small aris.y of newspapers and cinematograph photographers were present, and tiie Press of London and the provinces wi is fully represented. Moreover, the Lord Mayor, Sir Granville Eyrie (High Coi amissioner for , Australia), and Sir ' Thomas "Wilford (High Commission! 3r for New Zealand) spoke their paries into a microphone, and their statements were sent out from the Lond<] n •wireless station to all who were listej l-ing-in at that time of the morning. The Lord Mayor asked a question aboa it butter, and first Sir Granville Eyrie an id then Sir Thomas Wilford gave a fen w figures regarding the butter production of their respective countries, and tV.e conditions under which the produa c was manufactured. The noise from a, Norwegian ship, the Aiufina Jarl, juj3t out in the stream, drowned the voict is of the three speakers for the assemble d audience, but no doubt the microphone was more receptive than human can s. PIPING THE ADMIRAL. A company of about 200, Tepreseifi ting Home and Empire agriculture, mouchant shipping, and distributing tradf :s and commerce, had gathered on tb c quayside before the Lord Mayor, i n his robes, of office, drove up in his eai rliage drawn by four fine horses. Til c City Sheriffs followed. A half a dozo n grooms and the two mace-bearers a< :- companied the city officials. A fanfan 2, "blown by trumpeters of the Boy* il Horse Guards, greeted them. The Lard Mayor passed between a guard <>f honour formed by boys of the training" ship Arethusa, and then passe d down a gangway to the tug which ha d brought the four barges laden wit h Empire tratter. Both the tug and tl ie barges were gaily decorated, and mo ttoes were written on banners, such 1 is "The Empire's record butte* output,," "Back to pre-war prices," "10,000,000] b a week for Britain." As the Lord Mayor stepped on boai d *the ceremony of "piping the side" wi is performed by a party of ships' bosun 3, in recognition of the fact that the Loj d Mayor is also Admiral of the Port <if London. The two High. Commissioner .-s . received him on the deck. Later, when they returned to shore, the Lord May< )r •was presented with a cow and a boi aquet—both modelled in butter, tli ie former on behalf of a_ hospital, aa :d the latter on behalf of the Latj.y Mayoress. These articles were carried on a decorated electric trolley. In the frwnt sat two attractive dairymaids, the 01 xc •representing Australia and the other New Zealand. Three others walked on each side of the trolley. When t]ha photographers had obtained all tl ie pictures they required a procession was formed and the members of the painty entered the wharf buildings "to taJke wine" with the hosts—the New Zeal.wnd and Australian producers, and impa rters and the proprietors of Hay's Wha; rf. Mr. Owen Hugh Smith presided, a1 nd he was supported by Admiral Sir At ib:rcy Smith, Mr. J. E. Humphrey, J( [r. J. T. Clark (president of the Pedei •»-' tion of Grocers' Associations of t; lie United Kingdom), and the Town Cla rk of Bermondsey. WITHOUT PRECEDENT. The Lord Mayor proposed tho tw Ist of ".Success to the Empire Butt er Trade," which was drunk in- champagne. "To-day's ceremony is unique in nia;ny , ■ways," he said. "I doubt whether ajny previous Lord Mayor of London' has been asked to give, as Admiral of tide Port, an official welcome to a merchant fleet bringing the wealth of ti 10 Empire to the Port of London. I aim certain that none has ever before bean piped aboard a tug—a puny vessel, pel •- haps, for an Admiral, but one w^io'h symbolises the vast trade that centre s around the Pool of London. And I ax n positive that the presentation of a eoi v to the Lord Mayor—even if it is onl; 7 made of butter—is absolutely without precedent. "I am here to congratulate the pr< 1- j flucers of the Empire on their wondei •- fnl feat in sending us the greatest quan - tity of butter they havo ever exportct 1 to the Homeland. lam told that b; f the end of the present season Australiii and New Zealand will between then 1 have sent no^less than 2,Soo,ooocwt a f butter to theso shores. The ships that will bring theso products arc indeed .Argosies of Empire—richer by far than the Argosies of old and every whit a s xomantic, since they epitomise th c triumph of British colonisation. "In the few short years since ih c war, the Dominions of Australia an d New Zealand havo doubled their butU sr exports to the Homeland. That, I thin k you will agree, is a remarkable feat of production and organisation, and it is also testimony to the wisdom of thoir policy of settling upon the laj id thousands of their own ex-service m.i3n and those of the Imperial foro es whoso farms are now coming into fi ill production." AN APPEAL TO MAYORS. The Lord Mayor went on to say th at he had begun his year of office by strj Icing the Empire note in the Ld rd Mayor's procession. Keeping clear of controversial issues, he proposed to go on preaching the- gospel of Empire ss lflielp. He was, indeed, happy to lea m 1 from a. recent publication by the Umpire Marketing Board that the demand for Empire butter, as shown by ihe extent to- which it was stocked in grocers' shops, was healthiest in London and the South of England. "I say unhesitatingly that, having. regard to the great importance of tj tis trade to the Port of London,, jwe

should not bo satisfied until Empire butter is stocked in a hundred per cent. of London shops. Even those shops in the poorest areas should be able to find amplo custom for the excellent products of the Empire dairy farms, since butter is now back to pre-war prices and the Empire varieties are, quality for quality, easily the cheapest on the market. "I wish it could be ' said of the North of England that Empire butter had as firm a hold there as in the South. I suppose wo must blame geographical differences, which have made the Northern and Eastern ports the main ports of entry for Continental dairy produce. But I wbuld put forward my own proposal for bettering trade and employment in the industrial areas. It is that during the current municipal year the Mayor of every city and borough should, irrespective of party, do everything within his power to drive home the lesson that wo should foster trade within tho Empire and buy from tho Dominions who are tho best customers for our manufactured goods. To this end ho should not only do his utmost to ensure that the contracts of municipal institutions specify, whercvor possible, the inclusion of products of the Homeland and the Dominions, but he should also seek the co-operation of Labour organisations and, above all, the co-operation of women, in promoting friendly rivalry with other towns in securing the largest increase in the demand for Empire goods. I feel sure that if every Mayor in the country regarded his*year °£ office as an opportunity for making a big push for the promotion of Empire trade, we should secure an immediate reflection in bigger orders from the Dominions, and so quickly disperse the clouds of trade depression." Sir Granville Eyrie, replying, said that many people did not realise the quality of Australian and Now Zealand butter. That quality was obtained from the health-giving rays of the sun. Ho mentioned that the model cow was a replica of Melba IL, which held a world's record for yield of butter-fat. He hoped the season would be the best on record for Empire butter. The more Australian butter and other products wero bought in this country, the more articles of British manufacture Australia would be able to buy. HIGH COMMISSIONER'S SPEECH. Sir Thomas Wilford said that if the industries of this great country could have developed in the last twenty years as the butter industry of New Zealand had done there would be no need for increased taxation and no unemployment. There had been a 600 per cent, increase in the production of butter in twenty years. The Lord Mayor had spoken as one would expect him to, for he had the qualifications of a farmer and he realised the difficulties of those who had tho opposition of the foreign markets to contend with in the sale of their products. In New Zealand, by the aid of fertilisers and scientific farming, they had increased production to such an extent that this largely made up for the serious fall in prices. The fogs of Great Britain, continued the High Commissioner, had recently helped the sale of New Zealand butter. Retailers, like the retailers of wool, were holding short stocks. When the fog came and slow delivery followed the retailers came on1 to the market and the price rose from 103s to 116s. The Lord Mayor had helped the butter industry tremendously by his speech. He was ever keen to do what he could to promote the purchase of Empire produce which wpuld help the industry of this country. It seemed so axiomatic that if you did not buy from the Dominions the Dominions could not buy from you. If you bought from the Dominions, the Dominions could increase their purchases from you. The High Commissioner paid a tribute to the work of tho Dairy Producers' Board, the Empire Marketing Board, and to the association that had arranged the present ceremony. They must keep on and never give in placing before the British public the need to buy British produce. And why should they not? There was no butter in the world so worth its price. Evening newspapers made a feature of the pictures and description of the ceremony, and practically every morning paper had a print illustrating some feature of the ceremony. Once successful, these ceremonies have a habit of recurring, so that Tuesday's cere-, mony is likely to become an annual event. , ■