COMMERCE POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 14

COMMERCE POLICY

"INTENSIFIED ACTION"

MR. H.J.KELLIHER'S ADVICE

The need for intensified individual and collective effort in every phase of production was emphasised by Mr. H. J. Kelliher, managing director of Dominion Breweries, Limited, at the annual meeting of the. company on Wednesday. He urged also that the burdens imposed upon everybody for the "prosecution of the war should be shouldered in the understanding that the security of the individual and his possessions was dependent on the security of the Empire. "At a time of crisis such as the present," said Mr. Kelliher, "there is always a tendency on the part of commercial enterprise to follow a restrictive policy and to resort to measures which, from a national viewpoint, nearly always prove to be false economy. "ONLY SOUND COURSE." "It should be self evident that ultraconservatism invariably brings about the loss of purchasing power and seriously impairs, not only business stability, but the whole economic struc- J ture, including employment and the security of investments, with the result that a depression becomes inevitable. No matter, therefore, how serious the position may appear to be, common sense and sound business practice dictate a policy of intensified' individual i and collective effort in every phase of

production as the only sound and logical course to pursue.

"The war, unfortunately, over-, shadows so completely ordinary business activity that it would be out of place for me to make any prediction regarding the future. It is being brought home to us very forcibly that the individual and his possessions are secure only to the,extent that our country is secure and,, in turn, the security of our country is dependent upon the security of the Empire.

"It is in this light that we should regard the unprecedented burden imposed by the war on one and all, and realise that the whole of our resources in men and material and all we possess is at the disposal of the Government for war purposes."