BUY BRITISH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21531, 31 December 1931, Page 5

BUY BRITISH

POSTERS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY BUYING OF BUTTER. (From Ouk Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 24. The Empire Marketing Board announce that reports received at the week-end from all parts of the United Kingdom make it clear that the voluntary showing of “ Buy British ” posters has resulted in the massed and decorative display of a single message on a scale which has never before been seen in the country. The board, which was still receiving constant new demands for material, have been asked by many inquiries how long the display should continue. The board have throughout been very conscious that the campaign derives its force not from themselves but in the Prince of Wales’s \vords, “from the patriotic determination of men and women of all parties that our country shall win through to prosperity, and their belief that, in order to win through, we must develop to the uttermost the resources of our own country and of the Empire outside it.” Their desire is that the campaign should be pursued in the same free spirit of voluntary co-operation which has made it so successful. Now, however, that so remarkable a display has been achieved they hope that, so far as local and personal circumstances allow, it may be continued until Christmas. They are arranging for the supply of posters on that basis, whether for the decoration of new points or for replacement purposes. MARKED CLOTH. The Federation of British Industries announce that by team work British wool textile manufacturers, who are members of the federation have for some time been marking their cloths with a common mark of origin which states that the cloth has been made in England by a member of the Federation of British Industries. Because of the large variety and grades of wool fabrics, the mark cannot and is not intended to signify any specific standard of quality other than that implied and assured by the high reputation and traditional reliability of wool fabrics made in England, On cloths sold in the piece or in short lengths, the mark appears on the reverse side, usually every two or three yards. These marks disappear in the making-up process, but to enable purchasers of ready-to-wear garments to be assured that the cloth is genuinely British, F. 8.1. members issue woven labels of the mark to making-up firms for attachement to garments from cloth - beai’ing the mark. UNBLENDED BUTTER. A letter written by Mr A. G. MurtonNeale, of Tooley street, has appeared in several newspapers. He said: — There must be many millions of patriotic people who are also anxious to make sure that they are buying Empire and not foreign imported butter. My advice to all is, “ Ask for, and insist on having, from your shopkeeper, New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, or South African butter in its original unblended state, and see that your shopkeeper gives you his personal guarantee that the butter he is supplying you with is genuine New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, or South African production.” THE NATIONAL MARK. “ I say to the British agricultural community with all the seriousness and emphasis that I can command, that if they do not seize their present opportunity they may never get another chance —at least within living memory. "If everyone spent lOd a week more on home-produced, articles instead of imported we should no longer be importing lieyond our means.”’ In these words Sir John Gilmour, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, summarised the significance of the “Buy British ” campaign as it affects the agricultural and fishing industries. “There are th-day,” he added, “some 150,000 fewer persons employed in agriculture than there were 10 years ago. “The farmer must prepare to meet the permanently increased demand which the campaign will, I hope, create. This means more production; it also means quality production and the fullest use of the national mark.” All the herrings sold in Great Britain are caught in British ships, Sir John emphasised. A keener demand for fish would be in the national interest. A “ BUY BRITISH ” TRAIN. _ Mr J. H. Thomas, waving a green flag, signalled out at Paddington station yesterday the Cornish Riviera express, whose departure marked the opening of the second week of- the Empire Marketing Board’s “ Buy British ” campaign. He had previously made a speech from the footplate of the engine. In honour of the occasion, the express had been converted into a special “Buy British ” train. The engine. King George V, bore a large “ Buy British ” poster, and each coach was decorated, inside and out, with similar slogans. A special Empire luncheon was served to the passengers on the journey. Mr Thomas, himself an old Great Western railwayman, was met at Paddington Station by Viscount Churchill, the chairman of the company. Mr Thomas said that the train, by its comfort and excellence, was a great advertisement for buying British. The real value of the campaign was that it would bring home to the minds of our people the fact than in brains, brawn, skill, and workmanship we were second to none in the world, and that we meant to “pull through.” “If you cannot buy British.” he said, “buy Empire, and then there will not be room for anything else.”