A FIELD DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 9, 10 July 1935, Page 3

A FIELD DAY

TRADING CAMPAIGN

VISIT TO THE FIVE TOWNS

BECIPEOCAL BUYING

(From "The Post's" Representative.) » LONDON, June 15.

Thursday, June 12, was a New Zealand field day in the Five Towns. The Meat Board, the Dairy Board, and the Fruit Board were opening their Reciprocal Trading Campaign. Mr. Forbes had been invited to Stoke-on-Trent by the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation, and the British Empire League had expressed its desire to extend hospitality to the New Zealand delegates. The league's hospitality was therefore applied to a day trip to the Five Towns, and Sir W. Herbert Daw (vice-chairman and treasurer of the league) and Lady Daw accompanied the party. Besides the Prime Minister and Mrs Forbes, the visitors included Sir James Parr (High Commissioner), Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Jeffery, Mr. Neville Wright, and Mr. H. T. B. Drew. New Zealand was further represented during the day's proceedings by Mr. H. E. Davis (London manager of the Dairy Produce Board), Mr. T. A. Duncan (chairman of the Meat \ Producers' Board), Mr. J. Fraser (general manager of the Meat Producers'. Board), Mr. R. S. Forsyth (United Kingdom manager of the Meat Producers' Board), and Mr. H. Turner (United Kingdom manager of the Fruit Board). The visitors were received at Stoke Station by the Lord Mayor (Alderman A. C. Harvey), Lieut.-Colonel W. J. Kent (president of the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce), Mr. E. B. Sharply (Town Clerk), and Mr. Sidney H. Dodd (secretary of the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation). The Reciprocal Trading Exhibition at Hanley (one of the Five Towns) arranged by the produce boards in conjunction with the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation, was the first object of inspection. The exhibition of New Zealand butter, cheese, meat, and fruit was combined with a fine show of British pottery from fourteen leading firms in Staffordshire. ■ After Mr. and Mrs. Forbes and the other members of the party had made a tour of the exhibition shop, Mr. W. B. Green (secretary of the North Staffordshire Retail Traders' Association) presented to the Prime Minister a beautiful Doulton figure on behalf of his association. He said it was a token of the traders' appreciation of the magnificent way in which the people' of New Zealand had supported the manufacturers of Stoke-on-Trent. They could be assured that the grocers of the city, in return, would at all times endeavour to persuade their customers to buy New Zealand produce. . DUTY-FREE POTTERY. In returning thanks for the present, Mr. Forbes said: "We have been able to assist your pottery industry by taking the duties off tableware. New Zealand has depended a great deal upon its Custom revenue to carry on its public services, but, wherever we can possibly make concessions to Great Britain we will do so. To give you some idea of the amount of preference we give you, on every £100 worth of foreign pottery coming into our country, the importer would have to pay £60. I think you will agree that is a fairly substantial preference, and, in view of the enterprise and efficiency of your pottery industry, 1 think you should be able carry on in New Zealand with that help." Mr. Forbes went on to speak of the excellence of New Zealand produce, dealing with the various commodities in turn. "I see," the Prime Minister continued, "we have displayed here also samples of your own manufactures made in this district, and which you sell.to New Zealand. This is to illustrate reciprocal buying and how it can be developed. You buy our goods and we buy yours—really inter-Empire trading. This is what we want to encourage. "A few days ago I received word of an order placed by the New iZealand Government with the Appleby Frodingham Steel Company, Limited, of Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire), for steel work for the Government Life Insur- { | ance Building, Wellington. The order is worth from £30,000 to £35,000. We gave this order to a British firm notwithstanding that it was £4000 above the lowest tender submitted from another country." TWO GOOD FRIENDS. The Lord Mayor said that, as people depended upon the successful disposal of the goods manufactured in their district, the manufacturers should be always' encouraging the development of trade with a country like New Zealand, which-was prepared to buy those goods with the money received from the sale of her produce. He knew the Potteries, and the pottery industry could count upon two good friends in the Prime Minister of New Zealand and the Dominion's High Commissioner in London. Lieut-Colonel Kent, in extending a welcome on behalf of the manufacturers, said everyone in Stoke-on-Trent should appreciate the New Zealand Government's attitude in regard to tariffs on 'tableware; and the housewives of the district, in return for the concession, should first of all consider what they could buy from New Zealand, in preference to buying goods from North Europe or South America. TIES BASED ON TRADE. Sir James Parr, in reply, remarked that the old political and constitutional ties of Empire had largely gone since the Statute of Westminster, but he wanted to see new Empire ties,- based on trading. "If we can only see in reality," he said, "a British Empire standing for justice and right among men, founded upon the closest association, not only of sentiment, but also of £ s d, the world will have the greatest asset for peace and prosperity it could hold." The party spent more than an hour at the exhibition, and then went to the new Jubilee Hall for luncheon, as guests''of the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation. In the afternoon the Prime Minister visited the works of Messrs. Doulton and the tile factory of Messrs. Richard Tiles, Limited. The party had tea at the L.N.E. Railway Hotel at Hanley, where the Prime Minister again took the opportunity of thanking the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for .their hospitality, and the British Empire League for arranging the visit.