TRADE BLOC SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23177, 25 October 1938, Page 5

TRADE BLOC SCHEME

LINK WITH THE EAST AUSTRALIA AND DOMINION SEARCH FOR NEW OUTLETS A trade bloc for Australia, similar to that of Germany in Central Europe, is envisaged by Mr. I!. F. Sanderson, president of the Chamber of Manufactures, .Melbourne. The bloc would comprise New Zealand, Australia, the Federated Malay States, Straits Settlements, the East Indies and India.

Mr. Sanderson expressed gratification at the propositi to establish an office at Singapore for a senior Australian trade commissioner. The potential market in this area would be enormous.

"Singapore nnd Pennng have adequate cool store facilities, nnd do not have to rely on tinned goods to such an , extent as the Federated Malay States," Mr. Sanderson continued. "Most of those tinned goods come from the United States. With tho establishment of a trade commissioner's office at Singapore tho possibilities of this market being developed for Australian trade are unlimited. The office will link up through Siam and French IndoChina with tho work already dono in southern China by tho Shanghai office."

Australia must' look to tho nearest markets if slio was to find adequate outlets for her products and develop her trade, Mr. Sanderson said. The market in India was at present very limited, but it would develop as tho inhabitants became more westernised. To make this trade bloc effective, tho only link missing was a trade commissioner in India. Plans for that were at present being prepared. Last year Australia had an adverse balance "of £7,483,000 with the East, compared with an unfavourable balance of only £1,958,000 in the preceding year.

DAIRY PRODUCTION DECREASE AT CAMBRIDGE 12.3 PER CENT LAST MONTH [from OUR OWN correspondent] CAMBRIDGE. Monday The seriousness of tho decrease in production this dairying season was made apparent to Cambridge farmers last week, when, in spite of liiglier prices, pay-outs have been less than last year. The Cambridge Co-operative Dairy Company has advanced to suppliers on September supply £"27,126 at the -rate of Is Id per lb. butter-fat for cheese manufacture and Is 2Jd per lb. butterfat for butter. In September, 1037, the pay-out was £28,311, at the rate of Is 2Jd per II). butter-fat for cheese and Is Id per lb. butter-fat for butter. September production, compared with tho same period last year, showed a decrease of 12..'3 per cent. For the four months of tho season to date tho decrease has been 9.04 per cent.

FOOD SUPPLIES BRITAIN'S EMERGENCY STORE LESSONS FROM GREAT WAR [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Oct. l Britain has enough food in storage to feed the population for 12 months even if no food ship reached a British port during that period. Plans for tho maintenance of the country's food supply are ready for immediate o|>eration. Tho power, knowledge and organisation behind them are infinitely greater and more sure than in 1918. The work has continued unostentatiously for the past 20 years and been intensified during the past IS months. The whole of the country's food producing, distributing and importing trades will come under Government control. All food retailers, from the directors of big combines to small shopkeepers, all farmers and fooil factories will bo supervised by the Food Controller. Private trading will be regulated. The controller will have powers to buy, sell or requisition all food commodities whether for human consumption or for livestock, as lit; may consider necessary. This unity of control, with such wide powers, is intended to prevent temporary shortages, hoarding of stocks, profiteering, bad distribution and individual hardship. Two chief divisional officers and 18 divisional officers, with full powers under the controller, have been appointed to cover England, Wales and Scotland. There will be no "food queues." but a rationing system will bo introduced for some commodities almost at once. The reason for this is no fear of shortage, hut .a desire to check rises in price and to effect economy in some classes of food.

Immediate rationing of bacon and ham may be thought necessary, in case Britain's normal imports from Europe should fail. Butcher s meat may be rationed. This would be largely a precautionary measure to chock waste. Certain classes of cooking fats and lards, it is expected, would also he brought under immediate control. The sugar shortage during tile last war is unlikely to be repeated. Up to 1914 two-thirds of Britain's supplies came from Austria-Hungary. These have been replaced by Dominion supplies jiiid home industry. All sugar stocks will be requisitioned under the lood control plans, including cargoes afloat destined for the United Kingdom.

Anions home-produced supplies, all nioiit will he largely set aside for the civilian population. Imported meat will lie used to a large extent for I lie armed forces, as it is more easily handled. OUTLOOK IN GERMANY TWO SOURCES OF WEAKNESS Discussing Germany's economic outlook the Berlin correspondent of tho Economist savs that the two potential weaknesses in the German economic situation are public finance and foreign trade, "either of which might compel a reduction in the present high activity of industry."

The correspondent adds: "It is, in tact, quite impossible for the NationalSocialist Government to contemplate a return to idle factories and to a host of unemployed. Thanks to the happy planlcssness, to the wealth of resource open to a dictatorial government and to its ability to net immediately, many minor tendencies toward depression can be promptly met by the tried expedient of sacrificing some impeding interest—usually that of the consumer. Whether this policy of expedients will be successful indefinitely is a very open question. But in tho meantime, anybody who liases his calculations upon an imminent economic decline is probably making a mistake."