TRADE WITH EAST INDIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 126, 30 May 1934, Page 11

TRADE WITH EAST INDIES.

The remarks made by Mr. D. Lammers, Sydney agent of the Dutch Line K.P.M., show that the great line is, apparently, withdrawing from any competition with our own shipping bound to the Far East. They confirm, further, that Australia had already acquired a lion's share in butter and in other primary products imported to Dutch East Indies. Obviously, the Dutch houses are watching the idea of expanding New Zealand trade with the East Indies with very creditable wisdom applied to practice. True, we should hardly expect any enthusiasm displayed at the other end by established commercial interests to set straight the balance j of trade between this Dominion and the] Dutch East Indies, which is perhaps 90 per cent in favour of East Indies. But reading about Mr. Lammers' "limited" market in Java for butter and frozen meat, one wonders what the limit is— in a country where all the cooking is done on butter and the demand for meat is steadily growing. Simultaneously with his remarks made here, at least two of Mr. Lammers' prominent countrymen spoke of developing East Indies trade, not curtailing it. The Consul-General for Netherlands in Australia, Mr. P. Staal, just stated that East Indies business communities in the places visited by the Austialian good will mission of Mr. Latham were pleased, and thought that, as a result, the countries would get to know more about one another. Dr. W. M. F. Mansfclt, representative of the Netherlands Indian Government, said to-day that Australian exporters had not attempted to supply the immediate needs of the native population of the East Indies. The aggregate purchasing power of 60,000,000 people in the archipelago caused a great demand for a surprisingly varied range of products. Again one -wonders why this Dominion should be utterly deprived from making a special study of the markets in East Indies, and why trade with New Zealand should not be encouraged. There is no danger and no harm in the fact that the Dutch East Indies are primary producing countries, just as this Dominion. Both countries arq producing widely different kinds of products, and it is more than obvious that both can only benefit if, abandoning economic nationalism, they would agree to interchange their products and to build up reciprocity in the trade between New Zealand and Dutch East Indies. ALEXANDER S. TETZNER.