SHIPPING AND QUOTA

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4607, 9 October 1934, Page 2

SHIPPING AND QUOTA

The desirability of an extension of Empire trade in the interest of British shipping was raised by Mr G. G. Mitclieson, M.P., in the House of Commons recently. In reply to two questions, Mr Walter Runciman, president of the Board of Trade, revealed that while practically all of Britain's Empire dairy produce is carried in British ships, not more than 35 per cent of foreign dairy imports arrives in Britain in British ships. Mr Runciman also stated that since 1932 14 ships, totalling 166,000 tons, had been built or were now building in British shipyards, for the United KingdomNew Zealand-Australian trade. In a letter to the London press, Mr Mitcheson combined those two points in a plea on behalf of British shipping that any proposal for the restriction of dairy imports should apply to foreign countries rather than to New Zealand and Australia, which, he pointed out, together, "contribute more than £2,000,000 annually to British shipping for the conveyance to our shores of their butter and cheese alone." Another development in this connection was the launching at Belfast early in August of the Shaw, Savill Company's ship Dorset, the fifth of the ships for the Dominion food trade.