TRADE WITH FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 201, 25 August 1919, Page 5

TRADE WITH FRANCE.

EXPORTS TO AUSTRALASIA. NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT. GENERAL PAUS REPORT. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, August 24. The Australian Press Agency has secured advance proofs of the report of the French mission which recently visited Australia and New Zealand The report deals principally with trade relations between Australia and France from the French exporters' standpoint. The preface to the report pays a deep tribute to the treatment of the mission in Australia. The great wish of the mission is that the establishment of closer relations, especially commercial, shall be the result of the visit. The report states that nothing is more admirable .than the natural bond between young Australia and old England, made by a. community of political ideals, and equally by a conviction that although the Empire Ls one, its parts are varied and free. "Australia," states the report, "seems to us to be a of real social equalityand easy material life. In other words, a happy country. MEAT FROM AUSTRALIA. Kegarding wool the mission found the greatest willingness on the part of Australians to aid France to re-establish her great textile industry in the north. Australians were anxious to find fresh markets for meat, or at any rate, to continue to supply those markets which Australia furnished during the war, France for example. Australia could also provide frozen horse--1 flesh, rabbits, and canned meats. "Wo are certain," the report states, "that I-'rance, in any system that she may j adopt for the. importation of foreign moat, will always remember the role that Australia played during the war, i and will not treat her less favourably than any other seller." The report proceeds to review Australia's industrial conditions. It recognises a resolnte determination on the part of employers and employed to maintain the existing system of Protection, enabling lc-ii manufacturers to compete more with foreign firms. Nevertheless Australia will be for along time to come an important outlet for more highly finished French goods. Tho mission is convinced that the interests (if Australian industry are not neces--'i'- .. jnposed to French industry, each | having its own domain. Although Ausi tra! in's industries on the whole had ! failed to make notrble pr-igress during the first three years of the war, they I gave the mission in 1918 an impression of real prosperity and growing activity.