LONDON TALKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21991, 8 April 1946, Page 4

LONDON TALKS

TEAM FROM N.Z. FARMING INTERESTS BIG FEDERATION PLAN Five members of the New Zealand delegation to the international conference of primary producers, opening in London on May 21, will sail from Wellington by the s.s. Waipawa for Liverpool. The party consists of Messrs. W. W. Mulholland, K. J. Holyoako, M.P., W. E. Hale. B. V. Cooksley and A. B. Congdon. Mr. G. 11. Grigg will travel by air later, and the two advisers, Mr. A. H. Ward, technical officer to the dairy Board, and Mr. S. A. Chisholm, London representative of the Meat Board, will join the delegation on arrival in Britain. Originally, the conference was called for October last, and a formidable team of 12 delegates and several advisers was selected. Advice from London, however, indicated that each country’s delegation was to be limited to six, and the personnel was subsequently re-arranged by a special committee of the Farmers’ Federation. Wary of Commitments Organiser of the conference and practical initiator of the plan for an International Federation of Primary Producers is the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales. Mr. James Turner, the National Farmers’ Union President, will be chairman of the preliminary sessions, but it is anticipated that most of the detailed decisions will be left to special committees. The agenda received in New Zealand is of a general nature but it gives prominence to plans for the International Federation. If, in the two weeks’ session, the framework of such a body can be constructed that is probably as much as can be expected. The New Zealand delegates, who received a vote of confidence at tiie February conference of Federated Farmers, have agreed not to commit their fellow-producers to any farreaching policy decisions without first receiving approval of them in New Zealand. No Governmental Status

The forthcoming conference has no governmental status. Its strength lies rather in the fact that all the delegates are directly representative of producers’ voluntary organisations for, as Mr. W. Mulholland said at a recent federation meeting, it is designed to protect farmers’ interests on an international basis, as there are so many organisations, some of an official nature, which cut across those interests.

If time permits, an effort will be made to arrange an interchange of Empire views, separate from the larger discussions but, while views will surely be expressed on the whole subject of world trade in food, no decisions other than of principle ’ are contemplated.

With the conference delegates on the Waipawa are Messrs. N. R. Jameson and H. J. Wardell, producer members of the New Zealand Wool Board, en route to a meeting in Britain of the Council of the International Wool Secretariat, Mr. J. H. Parker, of the Fruitgrowers’ Federation, is also travelling with the party.