TRADE WITH FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 24, 29 January 1923, Page 8

TRADE WITH FRANCE

LUNCHEON TO FRENCH MISSION.

A complimentary luncheon was to-day tendered by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce and the Wellington Provincial Industrial Association to trie, French Mission now visiting; Wellington. .There was a. /large attendance of representatives of many of the principal commercial establishments of this city. Theof the Wellington Chamber of Commerce (Mr. W. F. Cuthbertson) • occupied the chair, and he had on his right Governor Guyon, and on his left the Minister .of Customs (the Hon. W. Downie Stewart), other members of the French Mission, and Mr. 'O. T. Watkins (president of the Industrial Association). After the toast of the King was proposed and honoured, the company sang The Marseillaise" out of respect to their distinguished visitors.

In proposing the toast of "The French Mission," the Minister of Customs drew attention to the fact 1 that this was the second occasion on which a mission from France had come to this country since the conclusion of the Great Wai-. The Minister alluded to the advantages to be derived from closer commercial connection betwen the two countries, and spoke of the superior quality of many of the 'manufactures of France, and the peculiar specialisation which that country 'had gone in for in. reference "to certain goods. . He srioke in feeling terms of the sacrifices made by France and Great Britain in the struggle for freedom, and expressed his conviction that the friendship thus sanctified on the battlefield would ever be maintained between the peoples of the two countries. Governor Guyon, in responding to the toast, expressed the high appreciation of the members of the French Mission of the kindness which they had received since their arrival ;h New Zealand. After alluding to the sacrifices made by the soldiers of the Dominion ,on the fields of France, Governor Guyon remarked, dealing with the mission's tour, that their object was to ascertain the commercial needs of the people of New Zealand, and to submit a report on tliat. subject to the Government and people of France, with the view of increasing the commercial connection between the two countries for their mutual benefit. The members of the mission, from what they had seen of the Dominion, were convinced that NewZealand had before it a most prosperous future. He specially mentioned the superior quality of the Dominion's frozen meat and dairy produce.

(Proceeding.)