PRIMARY PRODUCE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1935, Page 6

PRIMARY PRODUCE

CLASH OF INTERESTS

PREMIER AT GLOUCESTER

SPEECH BY LORD BLEDISLOE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, June 8. Lord Bledisloe was entertained at dinner at the Guildhall, Gloucester, by the Gloucester Chamber of Agriculture, of which he is a former president. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes were spending the weekend at Lydney. and the Premier attended the dinner. Responding to the toast of the principal guest, proposed by the Eai'l of Wemyss and March, Lord Bledisloe said he- had been living lately in a genial atmosphere in a country where the farming interest was politically dominant. He had had as his official advisers a Government composed entirely of farmers. How very different had been the experience here.. During his absence there had come into existence in this highly-industrialised country a Government backed by the bulk of the proletariat which not merely expressed sympathy with agriculture, but had set itself with constructive courage to save agriculture from economic ruin, not in the interests cf the British farmer, but in that of the nation. It was more1 than sixty years ago since Disraeli uttered the significant warning: "The nation which neglects itj agriculture is doomed to decay." In Great Britain that decay had not merely begun but was far advanced and needed to be drastically arrested. He was far from saying that the methods of arresting it were beyond criticism, and still less that they had in them the elements of assured continuity. They would, he thought, need considerable modification' in . the light of. experience. Such elements of continuity were, he was confident, conditional upon three dominant considerations—first, the maintenance of uniform high quality in all essential primary products; secondly, their cheapness so far as was consistent with a profit to the really efficient producer; and. thirdly, fair consideration for the reasonable claims of farmers in the overseas Dominions. In this connection New Zealand particularly merited well-informed and sympathetic consideration, because she had today no possible market other than Britain for 70 per cent, of her primary products, compared with 40 per cent, in the case of Australia, and still less in that of Canada and South Africa. EMPIRE ECONOMIC COUNCIL. "There is in my judgment no fundamental ' difficulty about harmonising the legitimate claims of British farmers and those of their brother-farmers in the Dominions," Lord Bledisloe said, "especially if a plan can be evolved, so far as primary products are concerned, of allocating to each Dominion a due proportion of those products of the highest quality which that Dominion is best able to supply. It would, indeed, be a calamity if Britain's backbone—her rural community —weakened in its staunch Imperialism through apparently conflicting economic interests. Our Empire ■ trade motto must be 'Live and let live.' I look forward to the day when, instead of Empire Governments contending over quotas of meat and dairy produce, there will be established a permanent Empire Economic Council, composed, at least in part, of representatives of the farmers of all Empire countries, who willswork out in friendly negotiation a long-range policy that will be fair and equitable to all alike." Mr. Forbes, responding to the toast of "The Empire Overseas," proposed by" Sir Alan Garrett Anderson, paid special tribute to the. work done by Lord and Lady Bledisloe during their term' of office. The Empire was increasing in strength day by day, and everything possible should be done to foster its growth. There, were problems of production and marketing, but those problems must not be^allowed to interfere with Empire progress. In New Zealand it was felt that the British farmer had first claim upon the markets in his own country. But with regard to what was left they felt they were a little closer and had a little more claim than the foreigner. They believed that the Empire would be strengthened by mutual and reciprocal trade. . .t . . '