NATIONAL TRADE LOSSES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 11 June 1925, Page 7

NATIONAL TRADE LOSSES.

AUSTRALIA’S WORST ADVERTISE- * MENT. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE NEEDED. liY CAUL K-—PR ESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGUC LONDON, June 9. The Australian Press Association states that there was a great crowd including many Australians, at the launching of the Otranto from the slipway immediately overlooking the shed in which the Australian submarines will shortly be laid down. A bottle of Australian:. 1 burgundy was broken over the bows. The Otranto promises to be the company’s show ship, and sails for Australia in January. In a speech at a subsequent luncheon Mr Allan Anderson emphasised that the cycle •of depression affected first the merchant, then the shipowner, and finally the builder, the last-named competing with the people who have not adjusted their compasses to the new conditions. .Perhaps the Britishers will later find that they are not so mm h above - rivals’ prices. There was the spectacle of nations embarking on shipowning, which they were incompetent to undertake, involving losses which they can ill-afford to bear. For instance, the Italians were hoping to restrict transit of Italians to Italian ships, to the disadvantage of the Orient Company, which had so far conveyed the Italians to Australia. The Italians declared that they hoped to maintain their Italian identity in the new country. He was not surprised that Australia resented the idea. She wanted new citizens, but not aliens. He also was not surprised that there was no answer to the tenders for the purchase of the Commonwealth Line. Australia needed loans and, what was more important, private enterprise, which financed itself. He was of the opinion that the existence of national trading, losing millions of pounds, was the—worst advertisement for Australia.—A. and N.Z. Assn.