NEW ZEALAND POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1939, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND POLICY

A BRITISH VIEW

VIOLATION OF OTTAWA

MR. NASH'S DEFENCE

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, June 15. New Zealand's trade policy is regarded by the Federation of British j Industries as a violation of the Ottawa : ' Agreement, it was stated after a meeting of the executive committee this week. "The New Zealand Government's action in instituting, for the first six months of 1939, a severe system of j licences and quotas to cover imports from this artd other countries into the Dominion, followed by still further restrictions and a complete embargo on a large variety of British manufactures, is regarded by the federation :s an obvious breach of the Ottawa Agreement, and as contrary to the interests of the Empire as a whole," it was stated. "Further, the New Zealand Government's offer tp uplift licences, quotas, and embargoes in favour of manufacturers and suppliers who are willing to send goods to the Dominion and to allow the payment for these goods to remain in New Zealand for an unstated* time at an unstated rate of interest is regarded as wholly unacceptable. The federation is urging its member interests to refuse to carry on business on these terms. "The federation points out that New Zealand enjoys under the Ottawa Agreement the right of free entry for her products into tbe markets of this country (which already takes some 85 per cent, of her exports) but, at the same time, severely restricts, or refuses entry altogether to British manufactured goods. The federation is of the opinion that this state of affairs amounts to a complete violation of the Agreement, and urges that arrangements should be made for trade between the t\Vo countries to be conducted on principles which bind equally both parties and operate fairly to their interests." SOCIALIST STATE. In the course of an interview with the "Birmingham Mail," Mr. Nash said: "I hear from British manufacturers that we are not buying sufficiently and yet the city tells us that we are spending too much. I tell the holders of these two opposite views to reconcile .their contrasting opinions and then I jean talk to both! I believe we are (actually buying more today from Great Britain with our new economic policy than we would have been doing had we let things go as they were. Our prospects are probably better than that of any other country in the world, , and our policy of social security is intended to give the working people an opportunity to benefit from the -resources of the country. j "We have no bar against people from ! Great Britain, ahd mechanics and trained building i operatives have recently gone to New Zealand. Naturally, before we receive a large body of emigrants we want to see those of our own people who are engaged on public works absorbed into ordinary occiiDations and industrial activity. "What we are doing is to lay the foundations of a Socialist State on the basis of integrity and honouring the commitments of past and present Governments. We are maintaining all commitments and contracts. Our programme has gone steadily forwaird. .;. "We are not a 'gang of Bolsheviks'; our party is similar to your Labour Party. Our methods are different because circumstances are different, but our objectives are similax*. This Governmeift has been doing the things that I planned and worked out when I was in Birmingham as secretary of the| Selly Oak bßatepayers' Association. I can say, as a Midian der who went out ■ to New Zealand in 1909, at the age of 27, that our country offers a young man better prospects th'ari. he could find elsewhere. There is a finer family life, because nobody need worry about their old age."