PREMIER’S MISSION

Evening Star, Issue 21994, 2 April 1935, Page 8

PREMIER’S MISSION

HOPEFUL GOOD-BYE MESSAGE IMPORT DISCUSSIONS APPROACHED WITH OPTIMISM [SPECIAL TO THE ‘ StAE.’I WELLINGTON, April 2. The following message was issued by the Prime Minister, the Right. Hon. G. W. Forbes, to-day;— Before my departure for the Old Country I wish to address a short message to the people of New Zealand. My mission to the United Kingdom is one which, I think, everybody will agree necessitates the presence in London of the Prime Minister of New Zealand. A special invitation has been extended to all the dominion Prime Ministers to attend the celebration of the silver jubilee of their Majesties the King and Queen, who for a quarter, of a century have represented all that is best in British life and British ideals, and who have with such distinction upheld the traditions of the British Crown. I shall carry to London to their Majesties and to the people of the United Kingdom an expression of the united loyalty of their kinsfolk in New Zealand, and of our devotion to their Majesties personally, and to the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Prime Ministers of the other dominions have accepted the invitation to attend the Jubilee functions, and as they will be in London for that occasion, it is intended to hold 'informal discussions on the affairs of the British Commonwealth and of the world. , I have already referred publicly to the difficulty and delicacy of the international situation, and the whole subject will no doubt be carefully considered while the representatives of the outlying portions of the British Commonwealth are gathered in London. Another subject that will bo dealt with is the market in the United Kingdom for the disposal of the dominion’s primary products. This is a vital question for New Zealand, the whole prosperity of this dominion depending as it does upon a continued market in the United Kingdom for our products.' The position is a very difficult one, and will require the utmost goodwill and a spirit of mutual helpfulness to reach a conclusion fair and equitable to all concerned. The British Government is determined to foster and protect its agricultural industry, the largest single industry in the United Kingdom, winch gives employment to nearly one and a half million people. No one in New Zealand will question the. equity of the principle that the British producer is entitled to the first claim on the British market, but the dominion producer, we feel, should come second with an expanding share of the British market, and the foreigner definitely third. We in New Zealand have always received just, and indeed generous, treatment from the people of the United Kingdom, and I am confident that we may expect the same generous recognition of our difficulties in connection with the sale of Our products. I am leaving the dominion in a more hopeful frame of mind than has been possible for some years past. There is undoubted evidence of a slow, blit general, restoration of prosperity, and conditions throughout the world are definitely improving. In New Zealand the spirit of optimism is displacing the want of confidence of the last few years, and prospects are undoubtedly better than at any time since the depression began. Export values have improved, imports have increased, the balance of trade is favourable, the costs of production have been reduced, Budget equilibrium is being rapidly achieved, and money for investment is available in abundant quantities. Confidence is steadily returning. 1 am convinced that we can anticipate better times, and that we in this small dominion will be able to look back with satisfaction upon the manner in which we have faced apparently insuperable difficulties and to a large extent have overcome them.