ANGLO-TURKISH TRADE

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1940, Page 7

ANGLO-TURKISH TRADE

COMPREHENSIVE TREATY '. ■ ’ ■/ '■ ■ ’ .... - ■ ‘ GERMANY LOSES BUSINESS [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, December 4. The ' Turkish and British Governments have concluded arrangements which they hope will bring about a considerable increase in trade through commercial exchanges 1 between Turkey and Britain during the validity of the arrangements. Provision has been made that payments between Turkey and the sterling area shall be effected at the existing Turkish rate of exchange, and special accounts shall be created in order to facilitate commercial and other payments between the two countries. The. present arrangement is complementary to the Trade and Payments Agreement signed in London on February 3 of this year. The Treasury has made two orders under the Defence Regulations giving effect to these arrangements. At present 50 per cent, of Turkey’s foreign trade is with Germany, but under the stimulus of these arrangements the British Empire may well become the leading customer and supplied of Turkey. The conclusion of these arrangements has given all the more satis-’ faction in London because they are , the outcome of long discussions which . covered the whole field of Turkish

commercial relations with the United Kingdom and the British Empire. They will facilitate British purchases, running into millions of pounds, of Turkish agricultural and other products, the disposal of which is so essential to the maintenance of Turkish national economy. They will also enable the Turkish Government and importers to buy from the United Kingdom and the British Empire generally not only goods required by Government institutions, but also items such as cotton and woollen goods required by the peasant producer. Thus the long-standing British policy of aiding Turkey to free herself from undue and unwelcome dependence in her foreign trade on a single outlet has been successfully implemented. For increasing trade under these arrangements, which also imply closer co-operation between the authorities of the two countries, full use will be made of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation, which was formed some time ago to stimulate the trade of the Near East with Britain.

Local representatives of the corporation are collaborating with the Turkish authorities in an examination of the Turkish requirements, some of which it has already been found possible to satisfy. For example, negotiations have been completed for the dispatch of a number of locomotives and a large number of waggons to Turkey. United Kingdom and Empire producers and exporters in the past have carried on a considerable trade with Turkey, although trade with the United Kingdom has not amounted in' the aggregate to more than 10 per cent, of the total of Turkey’s foreign trade. MURDERERS EXECUTED. LONDON, December 5. It is announced from Bucharest that the murderers of the former Rumanian Prime Minister (Dr. Jorga) have been executed and many prominent citizens have been arrested.

S. AFRICAN FRUIT. (Recd. December 6, 1 p.m.) CAPE TOWN, December 5. The Government has ordered the Deciduous Fruit Board to’- conduct a pool of the export crop at fixed valuations, thus rescuing growers from a cessation of English imports. Part of the crop is being diverted to wine and other canning, drying and local markets. FRENCH-GERMAN TRADE. PARIS, December 5. Doctor Kuntz, head of the German economic organisation in France, announces a French-German clearing agreement, regulating all commercial and financial dealings, on the basis of 20 francs to the mark, applicable throughout the French empire. France and Germany are giving each other the benefit of their minimum customs tariffs. KING LEOPOLD. NEW YORK, December 5. The Belgian-American group, including Mr, Hoover, M. Van Zeeland, and naval, military, and diplomatic observers, have published documents claiming that King Leopold had no alternative but to surrender.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BOMBAY, December 5. Pandit Nehru’s sister, Mrs. Vijaya Pandit, the first woman to be a Cabinet Minister in India, has been arrested under the Defence Regulations, together with another former Provincial Premier and two former Cabinet Ministers. Subhas Bose who was hunger-strik-ing was released from gaol and taken home in an ambulance, with a prison doctor. EGYPTIAN APPOINTMENTS. (Recd. December 6, 10.45 a.m.) CAIRO, December 5. Aniz Azer has been appointed Commercial Counsellor at Washington. Similar appointments ? r e being made at Sydney and Cape Town in view of the changed war-time trading. Hassan Sadek has been appointed Minister of Defence, and .Abdel Hamid Badaway, Minister of Finance. N.Z. CASUALTY WELLINGTON, December 5. The following casualty was announced to-night:— . ' Private John Craig, died of sickness in England on December 1. His father is Mr. E, W. Craig, Barnoldswick, Lancashire, England.