TRADE QUESTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 22

TRADE QUESTIONS.

(By Cable.) . EMPIRE COTTON-GROWING. . LONDON, February 20. Sir Auckland Geddes announces that the Government has approved in principle of all the recommendations of the Empire Cotton-growing Committee. He said the Government would give £IO,OOO a year for five years to assist the development of the committee's initiatory work. A TRADE EXHIBITION. LONDON, February 22. A large British Trade -Exhibition organised by the Board of Trade will open at the Crystal Palace on Monday. The exhibits are exclusively British manufactures, anS there are 1200 stands, having a frontage of five miles. A hundred and sixty thousand invitations, including 50,000 to foreign traders, were sent out. Admission is restricted to traders, of whom representatives are coming from every European country, India, the overseas dominions, China, Japan, and the South American republics. Simultaneous exhibitions lasting for a fortnight will be held in Birmingham and Glasgow. EXCHANGE RATES AND HIGH PRICES. LONDON, February 23. The Allied Supreme Council will arrange an early discussion with experts on the problems of high prices and European rates of exchange. Sir Auckland Geddes, in the House of Commons, said the profits of Coats (the cotton firm) came chiefly from subsidiary companies trading in Canada and America. It was, he added, undesirable to curtail the operations of companies making profits overseas, as they were a factor in maintaining the flow of food and raw material towards Britain. OVERSEAS TRADE NEGLECTED. LONDON, February 24. Sir Auckland Geddes, President of the Board of Trade, in a speech at the British Industries Fair, which yesterday was visited by the King and Queen, urged that this fair, since its inauguration in 1915, had entirely, changed in character. It was no longer an opportunity for buyers to fill up gaps in their orders," but presented an opportunity to buyers from all parts of the world to secure goods of any class desired. The Government, he said, was contemplating a further development —namely, show rooms on the Continent and elsewhere. Sir A. Geddes stressed the point that the only way to win back our x pre-war commercial prosperity was by the development of the export trade. At present the Home market was almost too attractive to manufacturers. Profits were easily made, and buyers were clamouring for goods; but it was the overseas market on which British trade must rely for a continuation of prosperity. He suggested the advisability of businesses setting aside a considerable part of their goods for sale overseas. Sir A. Geddes concluded by announcing that the Government was contributing £IOO,OOO to guarantee the future of the British Empire Exhibition, which would be held in London from May to October, 1921.