OPUNAKE TIMES ‘Speaks for the District. FRI, FEBRUARY 24, 1939. BRITAIN'S EXPORT TRADE

Opunake Times, 24 February 1939, Page 2

OPUNAKE TIMES ‘Speaks for the District. FRI, FEBRUARY 24, 1939. BRITAIN'S EXPORT TRADE

Speaking :it the Mansion House banquet in connection with the British Industries Hair, Mr. Oliver Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, reaffirmed the Government’s determination to fight for Britain’s overseas markets. The intention has been stated, before. The firmest declaration was that by Mr. R. S. Hudson. Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department, made in the House r*f Commons early in December. It struck home to those to whom it was specially addressed —Germany in particular. Mr. Hudson’s repetition is also intended in part for the same audience, as his reference to Hitler’s phrase “we must export or die” proves. Arrangements are being made for discussions next month in Berlin, which, it is hoped, will lead to more satisfactory conditions of trading, but Mr. Hudson is again declaring that if economic peace cannot be secured by negotiations, Britain will not hesitate, to enter the fight for markets that are vital to her. The note, of conciliation is not over-looked in his speech. Britain’s fundamental belief that the world would be best served by an all round increase in internation al trade, possible only if artificial restrictions on its flow are removed, is again stated. Adherence to that principle has had a strong influence on British policy since the war, and even when it has been necessary to depart from it. the step has been taken with obvious reluctance. However, in recent months a determination not to see her overseas trade destroyed by the monopolistic methods of the totalitarian States has been increasingly shown The present restatement of it can be taken as a final warning, before the Berlin discussions, that there will be no hesitation to mobilise and use Britain’s reserves of financial and economic might if it should prove necessarv.