INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 262, 1 August 1929, Page 9

INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE NEXT YEAR NEW ZEALAND APPROVES An announcement as to the attitude of the Government towards the suggested holding of an Imperial Economic Conference next year was made by the Prime Minister (Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward) in the House of Representatives yesterday.

Replying to Mr. H. M. Rushworth (Bay of Islands), the Prime Minister said that the Government had recently received the terms of a statement on the subject made on July 10 by the Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs as follows: “As indicated in recent speeches of the Lord Privy Seal and of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom have under their active consideration the question of the development of Inter-Imperial trade, and they naturally welcome the indication jn statements by members of His Majesty’s Governments in Canada and elsewhere, of which reports have reached them, that this question is also under examination in other parts of the Empire. How such trade development can best be brought about is clearly a matter which each Government must to a large extent examine for itself. If, however, there were any general desire for an Imperial Economic Conference to take place before the next Imperial Conference, which according to the present understanding is due to meet in London next year, His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom would, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer made clear, gladly participate.” His Majesty’s Government in New Zealand, said Sir Joseph Ward, concurred with those views, and if any general desire was expressed for an Imperial Economic Conference prior to the Imperial Conference next year the Government would be happy to take part.