EMPIRE PRODUCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 18, 23 January 1933, Page 5

EMPIRE PRODUCE.

MARKETING RESULTS. AMERICAN DEBT REVISION. MELBOURNE MERCHANT ABROAD. After twelve months abroad,' during which ho attended the Lausanne and Ottawa conferences and investigated trade and marketing conditions in many countries of Europe, and also Great Britain, America and Canada, Mr. C. H. Tutton, a Melbourne lumber merchant, is returning home by the Aorangi.

"There is a distinctly better feeling towards Empire products," said Mr. Tutton, in commenting upon the prospects for the primary output of the Dominions. "The consistent advertising and propaganda of the Empire Marketing Board has had very satisfactory results, and there is a request by customers now for Empire produce first, particularly in the provinces." The fate of the board, whose finance was provided by the British Government, was under consideration, and Mr. Tutton said that the Dominions should express a unanimous voice in favour of its retention, which was certainly warranted by its results. In discussing the possibility of extending our markets overseas, Mr. Tutton cited the case of fruit. He had come across New Zealand pears in Hamburg, and there were prospects of expansion of trade in Germany when the buying, power became normal. This he evidenced by recalling that before her buying power depreciated Germany purchased in one year eleven million Spanish oranges. Though New Zealand fruit had arrived on' the English markets last season in a fairly good condition, and found satisfactory sale, the pears he saw in Hamburg had suffered from transhipment. "There is a pronounced trend of thought among business men in America towards debt revision," commented Mr. Tutton. After experiencing a period of great export trade and fortifying herself behind high tariff walls, America had found that these reacted against her, and serious thought was now being given to remedying the detrimental effcct of a policy which had not allowed for reciprocity in trade. America- had stood aloof from European affairs, but she now realised, with her foreign trade at stagnation, that she could no longer sit back and take an armchair attitude. Mr. Tutton, who was at Ottawa during the Empire discussions in a private capacity, emphasised that there was more in the spirit of the interpretation and application of the agreements made than in their actual terms. Evidence of the effect of Ottawa was the fact that no less than 26 countries, who had- previously enjoyed the benefits of the British markets) were :now .negotiating for agreements with .Great • Britain.