THE HIGH COMMISSIONER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 118, 20 May 1932, Page 9

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—As an old New'♦Zealander who has been resident in England for the last twenty years and hafe just returned to the Dominion, it seems to me not only a duty but also a pleasure to be able to record how fittingly and ably represented New Zealand is by the High Commissioner, Sir Thomas Wilford.

I am able ,to state, of my own knowledge, 4hat the intention of the British Government was to exclude colonial dairy produce from the preference, until after the Ottawa Conference. That, in fact, was the decision of. the British Cabinet up to .12 o'clock on the sth February. Sir Thomas,. however, determined otherwise, and by excellent stafi work in assembling all the influential: people to state the case for colonial preference, in the finality succeeded in inducing Cabinet to alter their decision and graiit preference to colonial dairy produce.

The --'Daily Mail" of the sth February confirms this fact by the following extract:—"l gather that the policy contemplated by the Government is much wider than was generally anticipated by a large body of M.P.'s. For jpstance, the announcement that the tariff is not to apply to any of the Dominions, including India and-Southern Rhodesia, until after the discussions at the forthcoming Imperial Conference at Ottawa, are corneluded came as a surprise. I understand that this was an eleventh-hour decision made by the Cabinet following meetings between Mr. J. H. Thomas, Dominions Secretary, and representatives of the Dominions attending the Disarmament Confcronee/at Geneva." Every New Zealander will be proud to know that the driving force and the dominating personality behind this later decision was their High Commissioner, Sir Thomas Wilford. In. doing that he placea tho primary producers of this country under a debt of obligation which it will be hard for them to discbarge. My reason for writing this is that they could never hope to discharge tht! debt without having a knowledge of what actually took place.—l am, etc., ,

ALEC NATHAN,