POLICY QUESTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 19, 22 July 1939, Page 10

POLICY QUESTIONS

COMMENT WITHHELD

DETAILS WANTED

The business community generally is withholding comment on the outcome of Mr. Nash's London visit pending further clarification of the various points mentioned by the Prime Minister yesterday and in reports cabled from London. A manufacturer said that if the modification of policy mentioned involved virtual abandonment by the Government of the protection promised to local secondary industries when the import selection scheme was initiated, then he would "kick, and kick hard," but it was not clear yet to what; extent manufacturers would be affected or even if they would be harmed at all. j "As far as I am concerned, I have no j desire to see importers put out of j business by imoort control," he added, i "If the import business is experiencing bad times the general level of pro- j sperity in the Dominion is affected,! with a consequent lowering of con-1 sumption of New Zealand-made goods, j In fact, _there is no doubt that the \ Dominion is experiencing a slump at present as a direct result of import control. "As far as New Zealand manufacturers are concerned we are forced to pay wages that enable our employees to maintain a high standard of living. It seems to me desirable that that standard should be maintained as far as possible, and all we ask is sufficient protection to enable us to maintain the wages we are forced to pay and to make a reasonable margin of profit. Apart from those considerations, I would welcome the stimulus that is always present under a system of free competition." WHEN THE CREDIT IS USED UP? The representative of one large in> porting firm was sceptical of the London arrangement for credits. The sum of £4,000,000, he said, would represent about one month's accommodation for private importers—on the basis of, an annual import value of £50,000.000. What would be done when that sum was exhausted? It seemed that Mr. Nash had been able only to stave off the approaching crisis. Moreover, said the importer, Mr. Nash's and Mr. Savage's assurance that import selection was to be relaxed in favour of British exporters was so vague, and so like statements generally made by Labour Ministers, that little evidence of intention could be based on it. In brief, Britain's promised £4,000,----000, on terms not yet made clear, wasj a mere drop in the bucket. It might, be that Mr. Nash had been induced to give further undertakings to the British Government, not yet disclosed, which would prove unpopular with his party when he returned from England. It seemed necessary for the Government to institute, without delay, a policy of saving and conservation of resources. Whether the party would allow that would depend on Mr. Nash's arguing powers. Any comment on the London arrangement must still be conjecture, however, as the statement released yesterday was vague in the extreme.