RUSSIAN TIMBER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17450, 24 December 1930, Page 7

RUSSIAN TIMBER

HUGE ENGLISH CONTRACT TO PREVENT DUMPING PERTH, Dec. 10. A £10,000,000 contract with Russian timber exporters to circumvent Soviet designs to flood England with cheap timber in 1931 was discussed to-day by Mr. .7. C. Meggitt, an English timber importer, who passed through Fremantle on the Otranto from London.

Mr. Meggitt said that ho had been interested in the importation of timbers from Europe and Continental countries. Canada, and the United States for the past 40 years. The world oad plenty of timber resources, and there was no fear of shortage for many years. Russia was seeking to dominate the world’s market in accordance with the Soviet five years trading campaign, and each year the Soviet had been endeavoring to export more and more timber, made available by conscripted labor. He was a director of a group of English timber importers who had entered into a £1(J,000;000 contract to buy the whole of the Russian output to England for the next year. For some time the Soviet authorities at Moscow refused to recognise the undertaking, but finally the purchase was oflicially recognised. , Asked whether the contract might antagonise friendly timber expoiting countries to England, Mr. Meggitt admitted the possibility of such being the case, but he explained that the Soviet had aimed at flooding England with cheap timber in 1931, and while England remained a free-trade country the timber interests had to look after themselves. The contract with Russia governed both the buying and selling prices of the timber, and it would stabilise the market for 19.U-..2.