BUSINESS VISIT TO U.S. AND BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25346, 20 November 1947, Page 10

BUSINESS VISIT TO U.S. AND BRITAIN

CHRISTCHURCH MAN’S EXPERIENCES Experiences on a business trip to America and Great Britain were described by Mr E. Uren, of Christchurch, to members of the Christchurch Businessmen’s Club on Monday. In New York he visited the Stock Exchange in Wall street. Business was carried on in a large room, where figures were shown continuously on a screen, the width of the room. He could not understand the figures, but evidently the brokers could, as there was a continual noise of shouting. The floor was inches thick in paper. He left the La Guardia aerodrome by air for Great Britain. One of the stops was at a Newfoundland airport, where the only refreshment building was a tin shed. When he returned six weeks later a modern building containing all amenities had been erected. A stop was made at Shannon, Irer land, where the food supply, contrasted with British austerity, made him feel rather disgusted. For breakfast they haci an abundance of cream and butter. A passenger asked if he could buy a raw egg for his son in Great Britain, who was ill, but he was abruptly answered: “No. Nothing is to go out of the country without sn export licence.” When the passenger suggested he might take some of the butter which had not been eaten at breakfast.' he was answered in the same way.

Mr Uren stayed at the Dorchester Hotel in London, and was surprised to see so many butlers, porters, and doormen. He had not expected to see so many men in such jobs during an economic crisis, and thought they could be better employed in production. Meals at the hotel were very light, said Mr Uren. He ordered tomato and bacon one morning for breakfast and received a piece of bacon measuring one inch by one and a half inches, and as thin as a piece of paper. The tomato was the size of half a golf ball.