TRADE INTERESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 45, 22 August 1938, Page 3

TRADE INTERESTS

THE SOUTHAMPTON DOCK?

(Ffom "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, July 16.

The chairman of the Southern Railway, Mr. R. Holland-Martin, presided at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel on July 14 to introduce Mr. H. W. Bevan, agent in New, Zealand and Australia ! for the Southern Railway, to guests '•who included High Commissioners, Agents-General, and men connected with trade and shipping. interests between Australia, New Zealand, and the British Isles. Those present included, besides the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Messrs. John MacMil"lan, R. S. Forsyth, H. Turner, A. Rowland, E. A. Eva, Basil Sanderson, and IW. Donald. - .

Mr. Gilbert Szlumper, General Manager of the Southern Railway, said that since Mr. Bevan's appointment in 1935 a fuller measure of understanding of the producers' and shippers* problems had resulted. Mr. Bevan had established valuable contacts with a large number of firms and organisations both in New Zealand and in Australia, and it was with the object of still further cementing these in London that the opportunity had been arranged for him to meet prominent men in Government, shipping, and trade interests. The fact that some 60 per cent, of the trade passing through. Southampton came from Empire sources made it evident that' the port was equipped to handle and distribute satisfactorily Empire produce for the London market and for the chief provincial markets.

Sir Earle Page (Minister of Commerce, Australia) remarked that efficiency in ports in the United Kingdom was of as much importance as that with the ports of shipment, as smooth handling and speedy distribution were essential to delivery of produce in prime condition.