MUST HAVE FAIR SHARE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 127, 22 February 1939, Page 9

MUST HAVE FAIR SHARE

Britain’s Attitude To World Trade “TOO MANY ONE-WAY STREETS” By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. (Received February 21, 5.5 p.ni.) LONDON, February 21. Speaking at a Mansion House banquet in connexion with the British Industries Fair, the President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Oliver Stanley, declared that the Government would not stand idly bv and see markets lost. There were already too many one-way streets in international commercial traffic. No- individual exporter could fight for markets against a whole nation if other countries said they must export or die (a phrase used recently by Herr Hitler). -

“How fatally true it is that not merely our riches and power but also our existence depends on international trade,” said Mr. Stanley. “We do not desire to monopolize markets, but must have a fair share of the export trade of the world. We believe that cut-throat competition is avoidable.”

It was the Government’s belief that prosperity would return to the world only by an increase in international trade, necessitating lowering barriers. He hoped that the country would not long be compelled to devote so great a part of its energies to metal and other armament industries. The Prime Minister announced in the House of Commons that with a view to consolidating trade relations, Mr. R. S. Hudson, Secretary for Overseas Trade, who is to go to Berlin, will also visit Moscow. 'As a preliminary to the opening of conversations in Berlin next month between the Federation of British Industries and the Reich’s Gruppe Industrie, Mr. Ashton Gwatkin, of the Economic Relations Department of the Foreign Office, will visit Berlin this week, states a British official wireless message.