WIRE CONTRACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1939, Page 10

WIRE CONTRACT

"VERY DANGEROUS PRECEDENT"

BRITISH FIRM'S COMMENT

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, June 12. Mr. A. T. Johnson, of Richard Johnson and Nephew. Limited, speaking at the annual meeting of the firm;: said: "A few days ago we i-eceived intimation from our agents in New Zealand that for the first time in history tlie New Zealand Government had decided to place their general wire contract past this country. The successful tenderers, the Australians, were aided by the exchange position, which has. the effect of' giving them a 25 per cent, advantage. "This has been in existence for some years but, hitherto, the New Zealand Government has, no doubt, been influenced by the fact that New Zealand's sales to Great Britain are two-and-a-half times as large as her. purchases from this country, whereas.New Zealand enjoys an unfavourable balance of trade with Australia. "The loss of this important, section of the trade involves not only a considerable tonnage of wire, but also a considerable tonnage of British steel and establishes a very dangerous precedent as regards the general purchasing of British goods in the Dominion llt has been quite clear that we have' been threatened in this direction for a long time, and I cannot help feelin_» that this calamity could and shoSI have been avoided^" *»«u«_i