"BLOW AT EMPIRE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1939, Page 16

"BLOW AT EMPIRE"

IMPORT CONTROL

AN ENGLISH OPINION

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day,

The following extract from a letter by a well-known London firm to a business house in Dunedin reflects the opinions of at least one section of the English business world regarding the import restrictions: "We have always considered the exchange a premium in itself, somewhat of a mistake and certainly tending to penalise English exporters, but these latest moves smack very strongly of dictatorship. In normal times, no doubt, the reactions to such steps would have been very much stronger than they are today, but the situation in Europe is such that blows to preconceived ideas are being delivered practically daily and one is becoming rather insensitive to new and unusual happenings. "It is extremely difficult for us here, in the centre of all the trouble, to see where it is going to end. We are, of course, greatly affected in European territories from a business point of view, and if such countries as Australia and Africa follow the lead of New Zealand in managing their currencies they will be aiming a great blow at the British Empire, and we would go so far as to say that it will practically be the undermining of the foundations of this remarkable edifice which has been built up so carefully and patiently hy our British predecessors." *