EMPIRE ADVERTISING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19764, 15 April 1926, Page 10

EMPIRE ADVERTISING.

EXPENDITURE OF .-61,000,000.: GOVERNMENT TAKEN TO TASK. A FRESH SUGGESTION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 28. A certain amount of criticism is being levelled against the Government owing to its dilatoriness in carrying exit the recommendations of the mperial Economic Committee. Mr Baldwin is being accused of whittling down his promises. A strong protest was made by the council of the British Empire Producers’ Organisation at a recent meeting against the Government’s delay. The importance of adequate provision for the marking of Empire goods was emphasised by the council. In regard to the expenditure of the £1,000,000 grant, the view was expressed thtt any money spent on advertising Empire products should be epent under the dirjet supervision and control of the producers of the particular commoditiea advertised. The Government is vigorously attacked in the columns of Empire Production. “The vexed question of the millionpound annual grant is causing more irritation in the dominions than almost any other form of Imperial neglect,” the journal remarks; “it is better to break through a promise clean than to whittle it away. When the Government found it could not give preferences upon apples and canned fruit, Mr Baldwin made a statement that a million pounds would be voted annually in place of these preferences: that w-as the first diminishment. He hen stated that it would be applied not to the disappointed industries, but to the general ‘rade of the Empire countries where they existed—a further lessening of the gift. “It has recently been stated that this million fund will be spent partly on the marketing of the products of these islands. Everyone maintains that the first duty of the Government in Great Britain is to the producers of Great Britain, and no overseas voice has ever claimed in this market anything more than preference next after the Home producers. But the support to which the Home producer baa a right from the Government should not be a trumpery slim filched from a grant specifically promised for the promotion of Empire trade. To the proposals thus successively weakened, rumour* now has it that other blows are impending. It is suggested that the million fund will be reduced to half a million, and that ita continuance for any length of time is problematic.” It is not worth quoting any more of the long article on the subject. The attack is merely an effort to stir up the Government. During the past two days the members of the Economic Committee have been meeting, and although the proceedings ere of a private nature 1 have it on good authority that the Government will be making a statement in the course of tha next fortnight. ADVERTISING IN THE DOMINIONS. A new phase of the question has been expressed in the columns of the Daily Mail this week by Sir Harold Bowden. Bt., chairman and managing director of tha Raleigh Cycle Company. The suggestion affects very closely the newspapers of the Dominions. Sir Harold Bowden calls attention to what he describes as a weak point in the report of the Economic Committee, “That js, while £600,000 is to be spent on advertising in Great Britain and £400,000 on the improvement of facilities for the handling and transport of colonial produce, no reference is made to there being sufficient demand for such produce in the home market to warrant such a large expenditure. A very large number of British factories are on part time,, and there are still more than one million unemployed in Great Britain. “Might I suggest to the Imperial Economic Committee and to the Dominions Governments that it would be a much better plan to spend a small portion of this £1,000,000 in booming British manufactures in the dominions? If all oar factories and workshops in Britain were busy there could be no Question of the wisdom of spending £600,000 to advertise colonial products, but half-timers and the unemployed cannot purchase colonial butter and lamb, however attractively advertised “After all, the British manufacturer has to find the bulk of this million, and it is only fair to him that a portion should be spent! in booming British trade overseas.”