DOMINION PRODUCE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 257, 28 July 1939, Page 8

DOMINION PRODUCE

Restrictions On Exports To Britain ORDERLY MARKETING The statement of the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, about the restrictions on New Zealand produce entering the United Kingdom, was commented on yesterday by the Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, Mr. A. P. O’Shea. Mr. O’Shea emphasized that he was expressing a personal opinion, and that he had no desire to go into the question of whether or not the import restrictions had any bearing on the restrictions imposed by England on. New Zealand’s primary produce. He did desire, however, to point out that the prophesies of Sir Reginald Dorman Smith at the Sydney Empire Primary Producers’ Conference had now been realized. At the Sydney conference Sir Reginald had stated that the United Kingdom Government was determined to introduce the orderly marketing of primary produce, and that while New Zealand had done, and was still doing, an excellent job in regulating shipments, the benefit of that regulation was lost, if the other supplying countries did not do the same, and if the efforts of all countries were not co-ordinated. He told the conference that if the Dominions would not agree to regulation the alternative was an arbitrary restriction Imposed by the President of the Board of Trade. New Zealand had not accepted the principle of regulation, and had, therefore, automatically chosen restriction. In Mr. O’Shea’s opinion this failure to come into line with the expressed wish of the British Government was the major factor in the imposition of the restrictions. It was conceivable, of course, that New Zealand’s haying imposed restrictions on United Kingdom goods had something to do with It, but he was not. concerned with that, and merely wanted to point out that What the present Minister of Agriculture had prophesied had come true to the letter. Mr. O’Shea stated that he believed that the wisest course for New Zealand to pursue was to fall into line with the expressed wishes of the British Government, and that no good would come of refusing to do so. It was not yet too late to accept the conditions proposed at Sydney, which would be a big advance on the present arrangements. The farmers of the Empire sooner or later would have to get together and. see that their produce was marketed in an orderly manner, and that no one was allowed to break the market as the Australians had done during the last season by dumping shipments on the Home market close together.

“Till the primary producers of the Empire and of the world get together, they will be completely at the, mercy of the commercial interests.’’ Mr. O’Shea concluded.