OTTAWA BENEFITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21962, 20 November 1934, Page 5

OTTAWA BENEFITS

INTER-EMPIRE TRADE BRITAIN'S EXPORTS EXPAND MANUFACTURERS PLEASED The recent announcement by the Empire Industries Association that this year, for the first time on record, the exports of British manufactures to Empire countries have become greater than those to foreign countries, has been appreciatively received by representatives of British industry, writes an English correspondent under data October 9. The September Board of Trade returns showed that for the first eight months of 1934 the Empire's purchases of British goods totalled £98,795,810, an increase of £12,318,594. over the corresponding; period of 1933. British exports to foreign countries amounted to £98,132,470, so that Empire countries are now taking just over 50 per cent of Britain's total exports. The New Zealand Dairy Produce Board in England has circulated a statement analysing the latest available export figures, according; to which, among the Dominions, Australia has increased its purchases of British goods by 29 per cent. New Zealand and Canada by 28 per cent each, and South Africa by 24 per cent. Letters were published from Sir Henry Page Croft, M.P., and Sir Arthur Shirley Benn, M.P., chairman and deputychairman respectively of the Empire Industries' Association, citing the greater purchases by New Zealand and other Dominions as a vindication of the Ottawa agx-eements, and urging that Britain should neither stand still nor tie her hands by making foreign agreements which would limit her scope for Imperial expansion.

"The proof of statesmanship," Sir Henry Page Croft stated, "will lie in the recognition of the initial success of our policy, in the ability to grasp the opportunity with courage, zeal and vision, and to develop our best markets, widening their purchasing and selling power, as also their general prosperity, by a vigorous attempt to redistribute the population of the Empire on a long-term plan."

Pottery manufacturers in North Staffordshire, Derby, Worcester and Dorset have expressed the liveliest satisfaction at the New Zealand Government's decision to abolish the 20 per cent import duty on British table china and earthenware. They expect a decided improvement in their trade with the Dominion, notwithstanding that in competition with them Japanese exporters have recently made considerable headway. In a letter to the press, Mr. H. K. Hales, M.P. for Hanley, pointed out that it was fitting that British crockery should have free entry to the New Zealand breakfast table in return for the untaxed admittance of New Zealand butter and other dairy products to the British breakfast table. He urged housewives in the British pottery districts to reciprocate New Zealand's practical gesture by buying New Zealand butter in preference to foreign.