WOOL AGREEMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19880, 6 March 1939, Page 14

WOOL AGREEMENT

! SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE DEALING'S WITH (TERM ANY South Africa has recently received in Great Britain a double-barrelled criticism—first, for permitting a so-called monopolist control of the union's wool sales, secondly, for. doing so by means 'of a payments clearance agreement deemed contrary to Empire interests. In justice to South Africa, declares the Empire Unity League, London, in 1 a recent statement, it should be ! pointed out that there is no convincing evidence, if any evidence at all, that German buyers are obtaining a I stranglehold on the South African wool market. She fact that Germany has j opened her own wool buying agencies [ loses much of the significance it might otherwise have when it is borne in mind that buying houses which are now said to be closing their doors in view of iiie German operations formerly brought largely for German account. Nor is the Union placing all its eggs in one basket, for last year Germany took about 37 per cent of South Africa's wool, and statistical evidence is that Germany has always taken from .30 to 40 per cent from this source.

The payments agreement is no bar to free and open competition. If German buyers do force the South African wool prices up slightly beyond the world's level it is because they have no sterling facilities to purchase wool elsewhere. When this fact is taken into consideration there is little to support the allegation that the Union is discriminating in favour of Germany, or acting in a manner prejudicial to the common interests of the Empire.