N.Z. POLICY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4809, 12 July 1939, Page 6

N.Z. POLICY

A BRITISH VIEW. VIOLATION OF OTTAWA. MR. NASH'S DEFENCE. London, June 15. New Zealand's trade policy is regarded by the Federation of British Industries as a violation of the Ottathe Agreement, it was stated after a meeting of the executive committee this week. "The New Zealand Government's action in instituting, for the first six months of 1939, a severe system of licences and quotas to cover imports from this and other countries into the Dominion, followed by still further restrictions and a complete embargo on a large variety of British manufactures, is regarded by the federation as an obvious breach of the Ottawa Agreement, and as countrary to the interests of the Empire as a whole," it was stated.

"Further, the New Zealand Government's offer to uplift licences, quotas, and embargoes in favour of manufacturers and suppliers who are willing to send goods to the Dominion and to allow the payment for these goods to remain in New Zealand for an unstated time at an unstated rate of interest is regarded as wholly unacceptable. The federation is urging its member interests to refuse to carry on buisness on these terms.

"The federation points out that New Zealand enjoys under the Ottawa Agreement the right of free entry for her products into the markets of this county (which already takes some 85 per cent, of her exports) but, at the same time severely restricts, or refuses entry altogether to British manufactured goods. The federation is of the opinion that this state of affairs amounts to a complete violation of the Agreement, and urges that arrangements should be made for trade between the two countries to be conducted on principles which bind equally both parties and operate fairly to their interests."

Socialist Stale.

In the course of an interview with the Birmingham Mail, Mr. Nash said: "I hear from British manufacturers that we are not buying sufficiently and yet the city tells us that we are spending too much. I tell the holders of these two opposite views to reconcile their contrasting opinions and then I can talk to both! I believe we are actually buying more to-day from Great Britain with our new economic policy than we would have been doing had we let things go as they were. Our prospects are probably better than that of any other ocuntry in the world, and our policy of social security is intended to give the working people an opportunity to benefit from the resources of the country. "We have no bar against people from Great Britain, and mechanics and trained building operatives have recently gone to New Zealand. Naturally, before we receive a large ody of emigrants we want to see those of our own people who are engaged on public works absorbed into ordinary activity.

"What we are doing is to lay the foundations of a Socialist State on the basis of integrity and honouring the commitments of past and present Governments. We are maintaining all commitments and contracts. Our programme has gone steadily forward. "We are not a 'gang of Bolsheviks'; our party is similar to your Labour Party. Our methods are different because circumstances are different, but our objectives are similar. This Government has been doing the things that I planned and worked out when I was in Birmingham as secretary of the Selly Oak "Ratepayers' Association. I can say, as a Midlander who went out to New Zealand in 1909, at the age of 27, that our country offers a young man better prospects than he could find elsewhere. There is a finer family life, because nobody need work about their old age."