EXPORT TRADE TO BE PROTECTED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 104, 26 January 1939, Page 11

EXPORT TRADE TO BE PROTECTED

British Government’s Warning GERMAN RIVALRY Active Policy A Vital National Interest By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. LONDON, January 24. A further warning that the British Government would protect its export trade at all costs, and the expression of German views in that connexion, were features of the annual dinner of the German Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom. Dr. Wiehl, Commercial Director of the German Foreign Office, said that exchange control and clearings and payment agreements had been forced on Germany by her creditors, who had thus created the present difficulties. He considered that the recent changes in English and German foreign trade did not justify alarm in Britain. He thought that the situation could\ be settled by arrangement. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, Mr. R. S. Hudson, said in reply: “I disagree regarding the cause of Germany’s economic difficulties. They are caused by the development of an internal market under the stress of rearmament and the four-year plan.

“I believe that a settlement of international difficulties by peaceful negotiation would be overwhelmingly supported in Britain, and I think we are entitled to expect a friendly gesture in return.” He added that an active export policy was a vital national interest which Britain would defend to the limit, but she did not desire to achieve this to the detriment of others.