TRADE WITH CHINA

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27987, 6 June 1956, Page 13

TRADE WITH CHINA

British Colonies Relax Ban (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, June 5 Britain’s colonial governments now all have discretion to export to Communist China goods of potential military value which Russia is free to buy in Western markets. But Britain’s move does not affect the controls which independent Commonwealth nations impose. The Governments of Malaya and Singapore announced yesterday that they would authorise “reasonable” sales of rubber—one of their biggest products—to Communist China. The decision repreesnts the first big break Britain has made from the embargoes on strategic goods imposed by the United Nations allies after China had supported North Korea in the Korean war. The British Government has for months tried to have the limitations imposed by the West on exports to China relaxed to bring them into line with the sales ban maintained against Russia. • One Commonwealth country—Ceylon—has been exporting rubber to China for a long time in defiance of a United Nations resolution of 1951. Ceylon was not then a member of the world organisation. The British Foreign Office said today that what constituted a “reasonable” amount of rubber would be decided after consultations between the London and colonial governments. The “Financial Times” said in a leading article today that the ban on the export of Malayan rubber to China had probably been the most glaring anomaly in tne whole system of controls over trade with the Communist bloc. The ban imposed by the British Government in Malaya had not prevented the Chinese from buying as much rubber as they wanted from other sources.

“The net effect has simply been to favour the Ceylonese and the Indonesians at the expense of the Malayans,” the newspaper commented.