PRODUCTS FROM THE COLONIES

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22196, 13 September 1937, Page 11

PRODUCTS FROM THE COLONIES

MARKETING BOARD TO BE ESTABLISHED SCHEME TO COST L .">2,000 A YEAR ora ow a comiesi'OßDwri.) LONDON, August 21. A Colonial Marketing Board is to be established by the British Government to supervise a Government scheme to promote the marketing of colonial produce in the United Kingdom and overseas. The board, it is understood, will probably consist of about 15 members, and among them will be representative members of Parliament and business men, including some with experience of the marketing of colonial produce. The chairman will be Mr W. OrmsbyGore, Secretary of Stale for the Colonies. The board will possess executive as well as advisory functions; and although its work will be closely coordinated with the economic activities of the Colonial Office, it will have its own separate; office and secretariat. It will appoint several marketing officers to study the various systems of marketing colonial products, both in the countries of production and overseas, and to suggest improved methods of collecting and preparing products for sale. It is expected that the board will, at the outset, undertake investigations of colonial marketing methods Later, it will help and encourage producers to build up efficient marketing organisations of their own. In addition, the board will probably decide to inaugurate an organising system of publicity for colonial products. This would include participation in exhibitions. It is proposed that any expenditure from the United Kingdom funds on scientific research arising out of the activities of the board will be met from the Colonial Development Fund. When the scheme was announced in Parliament, it was stated that the expenditure would be “of the order of £52,000 a year.”