CALL FOR COMPROMISE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19824, 29 December 1938, Page 7

CALL FOR COMPROMISE

LIFTING OF EMBARGOES POTATOES AND FRUIT SYDNEY PRESS COMMENT (Elec. Tel. Copyright—Doited Press Assn.) (Reed. Dec. 28, 3 p.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 28. The Sydney Morning Herald, editorially commenting on the statement by Mr. Bruce Walker concerning his talks in New Zealand regarding the potato and citrus fruits embargoes, says: “There seems to be no sufficient reason why the Australian and New Zealand Governments should not reach a compromise to remove trade restrictions and get rid of the longstanding absurdity.

“For the perpetuation of this petty trade enubroglio, Australia, it appears, must bear the brunt of the blame. It is the Federal Government which rejects a .settlement. Yet here its narrow and parochial attitude stands in direct contradiction of its proclaimed policy of greater freedom of international trade. The anomaly of embargoes is made especially unjustifiable by common sentiments and interests shared by the two Dominions.

"If New Zealand is prepared, as It appears to be, to reach a compromise over the potato-orange bans, tlhe Federal Government can only stand as unreasonable and inconsistent if it will not do it's share towards achieving friendly and beneficial reciprocity in trade.”

Mr. Bruce Walker, an Australian politician, who returned by the Monterey to Sydney on Monday, gave the Sydney Sun an interview concerning his talks with the New Zealand Prime Minister, (he Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, on the potato and citrus fruit embargoes, in which he emphasised the fact that the Commonwealth had adopted an unreasonable attitude in regard to ■the embargo on New Zealand potatoes. He related how the trouble could be overcome and the extent to which Mr. Savage was prepared to reciprocate.

Mr. Walker also declared that New Zealand, politically and economically, was in an unhappy state and that Mr. Savage was facing a split in his own party. There was, he said, a desperate shortage of farm workers, as young men were deserting the land for relief work at £4 10s per week.