PREFERENCE TO U.K.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 219, 15 September 1945, Page 7

PREFERENCE TO U.K.

j GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS BRITISH FIRMS DEFENDED Parliamentary Reporter. WELLINGTON, this day. The placing of contracts for the supply of electrical equipment in the United States instead of the United Kingdom was criticised in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. Doidge (Nat., Tauranga), who said that British tenders should have been accepted even if they were higher. The United States, he said, was determined to build up its export trade from three billion dollars to seven billion, and in order to do that it was going to undercut every country it could when the opportunity offered. The reply of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, on the matter had been very unsatisfactory. The Minister had read a very serious statement that six British firms had worked together and submitted the same figures so as to ensure the highest price. According to Captain Waterhouse, attached to the Board of Trade, British manufacturers had not quoted the same price on the contracts as a whole, but on two or three of 14 different sections into which the contract was divided. The manufacturers were deeply concerned and said their costs had been drastically reduced, and they had agreed to quote the lowest prices. In- one instance, the quote of the English Electric Company—based purely on calculation— was £15,000 higher than that of Metro Vickers, - whose price was based on actual previous experience of supplying New Zealand. The English Electric nrice was therefore reduced and similar tenders submitted —the lowest possible. Even if the American prices were lower the whole of the contract should have been placed in Britain; as she was in an even mors difficult position to-day, added Mr. Doidge.