THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1933. MINISTERS ABROAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22025, 7 August 1933, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1933. MINISTERS ABROAD

The members of the New Zealand Government who were the delegates of the Dominion at the World Economic Conference and have now left England on their return voyage are credited with having played a difficult part with admirable judgment and temper. In the speech which he delivered in the course of the opening debate in the Conference Mr Forbes pointed out that New Zealand was dependent to an exceptional degree on the prices in European markets for the primary products which she exported. He showed that, despite such increase in prices and such reduction in costs as had occurred, there Avas still a wide gap to be bridged before costs and prices reached a level that ivould enable primary production to be carried on successfully. Unfortunately for the Prime Minister and his colleague, they were disappointed in their hope that a definite agreement might be reached Avhich would have the effect of assuring the producers of an improved price for their output. Instead, they were confronted ivith a vigorously-urged demand that, in the interests of the British farmers, Avhich AA’ere, not surprisingly, the principal concern of the British Ministers, there should be a quantitative regulation of the imports into the United Kingdom of certain of the staple products of New Zealand. Their opposition to the application of a quota to dairy produce Avas expressed very strongly, but the Morning Post says the earnestness and conviction with Avhich they represented their oavii case did not prevent them from fully appreciating the practical considerations that had to be taken into account by the British Government. What the outcome of the discussions between them and the British Ministers upon the proposals for the restriction by the United Kingdom of importations of butter and cheese may be remains in doubt. No arrangement for the imposition of a quota has actually been reached. While it is impossible to argue that a country Avhich maintains a fiscal policy such as avc have in Ncav Zealand can consistently object to the principle of a quota, the hope that a scheme may be devised, though it may not be easy to devise it, that will give due consideration to the needs of both the farmer in Great Britain and the farmer in the Dominion, is to be cordially echoed. With the credits that are established in the United Kingdom through the disposal of the products of the- Dominion are necessarily linked the obligations of the Dominion in respect of her overseas indebtedness. Mr Forbes bluntly declared in his speech at the Conference that “ unless commodity prices can be raised so as substantially to reduce the real burden of existing public and private debts, there must be a general scaling-down

of these debts.” The question of debt adjustment is one upon which the Ministers from the Dominion may be confidently expected to have been in close negotiation with the British Government. The matter is obviously one of considerable importance to New Zealand, and the visit of Mr Forbes and Mr Masters to England will have abundantly repaid its cost if the effect of it is to secure an appreciable relief to the taxpayers of the Dominion in respect of the service of the public debt.