EMPIRE TRADE CONFERENCE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25995, 24 December 1949, Page 7

EMPIRE TRADE CONFERENCE

“ ONE OF OUR MOST URGENT NEEDS” VIEWS OF MR R. A, EDEN LONDON, December 22. An early meeting of Commonwealth leaders to discuss economic affairs was called for by Mr R. A. Eden, when addressing the Institute of Export. Britain’s paramount need at the moment was to earn dollars, he said. “But we must not allow this immediate truth to obscure the importance and abiding- significance of our trade with the Commonwealth and the Empire.” Mr Eden described a meeting of the Commonwealth leaders as “one of our most urgent needs.” Mr Leslie Gamage, president of the institute, said that. Britain’s export trade in years to come must be largely with countries of the Empire. Britain must not, he said, allow the export drive to the hard currency countries, supplemented as it was by bilateral agreements with many other countries which were not her natural markets, to prevent her from supplying the requirements of those who had not only stood by Britain in war but who offered her a long-term market in peace. Failure to supply them to-day not only caused bitterness and misunderstanding, but it also allowed foreign competitors to become entrenched in markets for the future.