MR COATES IN CANADA

Otago Witness, Issue 3801, 18 January 1927, Page 32

MR COATES IN CANADA

OUR TRADE WITH CANADA.

PRESENT POSITION UNSATISFACTORY.

OTTAWA, January 12.

Mr Coates arrived at Montraal to-day. Though his immediate iuterest is apparently centred in matters of trade and industry, he did not wish to discuss these until he had expounded his views on interEmpire commerce to the Prime Minister at Ottawa on Friday. s He emphatically denied, however, that his country was satisfied with the present trade regulations with Canada. “We import five times as much as we export to you.” “That’s fine,” he remarked to the Montreal Produce Merchants’ Association, when it was asserted that New Zealand was reaping the benefit from the three cents redaction in the duty on butter, imported from the Antipodes.

MR MACKENZIE KING DECLINES COMMENT.

OTTAWA. January 12.

The Prime Minister (Mr Mackenzie King) refused to comment on the statement made in New York by Mr Coates that the dominions must assume their f«!l share of defence or accept a position of national inferiority. He was also reticent concerning Mr Bruce’s statement at Vancouver that Canada must buy more from Australia if the present treaty were to be continued in force. x-

ADDRESS TO CANADIAN CLUB. OTTAWA, January 12.

At Montreal to-day Mr Coates told- the Canadian Club that he would confer with Mr Mackenzie King in Ottawa on Cana-dian-New Zealand trade. He said that closer relations were brought about not so i.wich through legislation as by the action of industrialists and merchants. Mr Coates said that Canada was selling five times as much to New Zealand as she Bought from the southern dominion. He added : “One result of the Imperial Conference is that the bonds which connect the dominions of the British Empire together are ..stronger than ever. All jeiegatss were confident on this point.” Mr Coates expressed the view that the work of the Imperial Conference would msrire the solidarity of the Empire. Shere was no danger in self-government Vy the dominions that was real. Mr Coates pleaded for .more business “within the family.” He emphasised the desire of New Zealand to see more Canadian business men in person.” We must trade with all nations, but it seems to me that the task rests on the shoulders of everybody within the Empire that if' we value •Hir invitations we should endeavour wherever possible to do business among oor own people within our own family. It is New Zealand’s desire to do business •with her own people. We are anxious to do business with Canada.

IMPERIAL DEFENCE. , OTTAWA, January 14. “Canada’s contribution to Imperial defence is a question for your Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King,” declared Mr Coates in a statement here. It was’a question upon which he did not wish to express an opinion. He hoped to discuss the question of better trade relations between Canada and New Zealand. While saying he was anxious to increase trade between the two countries, Mr Coates indicated that a new trade agreement might possibly come later. EMPIRE DEFENCE. NEW YORK, January 11. Mr Coates and his party arrived this evening from England and entrained almost immediately for Montreal. In the course of a brief statement, in which he foreshadowed a gradual increase of New Zealanders, per capita contribution for defence until the amount “compares favourably with that of the Mother Country” Mr Coates described the New Zealand navy as a “unit of tSie Imperial Navy’’ jathpr than a complete organisation in itself. • He agreement with Mr Bruce that the dominions must share fully the cost of Imperial defence or “accept .a position of national inferiority.” VANCOUVER, January 12. Canada's duty in the matter of defence In view of the equal status of all overseas dominions of the Empire was dis-' cussed by Mr Bruce before a record gathering of the Canadian Club here last night. He said that he did not presume to dictate Canada’s, policy, but he took the view: “We are all members of the same family, and I" take the relative's right to give my point of vie^.’ r To those who said that Canada needs no «lefence,.-he said: “Either they take shelter ’■ behind their membership in the British Empire or behind the United States Monroe doctrine. No nation /with pride could occupy such a position.” ! PROSPECTIVE TRADE AGREEI, ’ MENT. OTTAWA, January 14. Mr Coates lunched with the Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, to-day, and was the guest of the Government at a dinner at right. It is hoped that the preliminaries to- a trade agreement between New Zealand and Canada will be reached during Mr Coates’s visit, and it is believed that New Zealand will later send a < delegation to Ottawa to discuss trade relations further, and possibly conclude a definite agreement.

IMPROVED RELATIONS LIKELY. OTTAWA, January 15.

“Canada has five or six times the best of the deal in trade between our countries, but I must say that with the assistanceof the Prime Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, and the Minister of Trade and Commerce we have been aole to set the ball rolling leading to an interchange of trade between Canada and New Zealand.” So Mr Coates declared when addressing the Canadian Club on Saturday, following conferences with the Government extending over two days* “They have made it possible,” he said, “for me to go back home and arrange with our people to come back here and do better business with you than they were able to do in the past.” It is understood here that a New Zealand delegation will come .over in the near future and negotiate a trade agreement.

M. Coates did not touch on the question of Imperial defence, but in a passing reference to the possibility of another war he said that New Zealand would avoid war at all costs, except at the cost of national honour. He believed that normal trade would do much to prevent war, and he praised the work of the League of Nations Council in its efforts to give accurate knowledge of world conditions. He paid a high tribute to the work of Mr Mackenzie King at the Imperial Con * ference.