APPEAL TO EXPORTERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20499, 8 March 1941, Page 5

APPEAL TO EXPORTERS

RATIONALISE PLANT POST-WAR TRADE PLAN (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, March 7. Sir Cecil Weir, a member of the Industrial Export Council, speaking in London yesterday on the co-ordina-tion efforts of the Export Council with the limitation of supplies and new plans for greater concentration of industrial production, pointed out the role played by imports which had made serious demands upon shipping space on which war needs had first call. Despite the boasts and threats of the Nazis, merchant ships even now were bringing into British ports a greater volume of materials and goods than in times of peace, he said. Nevertheless, alternative uses of shipping space, especially to transport troops and stores to distant theatres of war, necessitated the closest scrutiny of its exports and imports which could be permitted even for export industries. He urged exporters who were unlucky in not obtaining the materials they required not to lose heart but to join with other firms in rationalising the use of their plant jJreparatory to a great expansion, of international trade which would follow the overthrow of the Nazi tyranny. The President of the Board of Trade, Captain Oliver Lyttelton, made it clear to-day that the Government's policy for concentrating production in connection with the limitation of supplies did not require the formulation of a scheme of co-operation or rationalisation for whole industries. It was a question to be tackled by individual firms which, by making arrangements for the wisest use of the available resources among themselves, would qualify for privileges, including protection of their staff from enlistment at a lower reservation age and help in safeguarding their supplies of raw materials.