ATTITUDE OF DOMINIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1933, Page 7

ATTITUDE OF DOMINIONS

CREDIT EXPANSION ASKED MEETING OF DELEGATES London, July 13. It is learned that the Dominions believe that price raising by expansion of credits must replace restriction of imports to enable them to meet their debt obligations. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor'of the Exchequer, has already indicated that Britain favours price raising, but that no policy is likely to achieve it. ■ . « ' It is believed that Mr. Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England, with a rigid deflationist policy is the real obstacle, and Mr. Chamberlain, influenced by traditional Treasury orthodoxy, is in his school. Frequent Parliamentary questions on the submergence of British agriculture to Dominion interests show that the House of Commons is increasingly becoming “agricultural.” Mr. W. E. Elliot, Minister of Agriculture, is known to have thrown a feeler to find how far the producing Dominions are prepared to go to limit imports, thereby preventing price fluctuations, while giving the British agriculturists a better chance in their own market.

The Dominions at Ottawa were not favourable to restrictions, but accepted a year’s curtailment of meat and two years of butter as a compromise. Their position still is that in the spirit of Ottawa there should be a curtailment of foreign imports, with the least possible interference with the Dominions’ desire and readiness to supply the deficiency above home production. For the moment the matter is left in the air, but there is little indication that much progress has been made towards composing the divergent outlooks. Following Mr. Elliot’s review of the position of British agriculture in the House of Commons on Tuesday and the analysis of the food imports, the usual meeting of the Empire delegation heard the British inquiry, also' discussed the advisability of creating an Empire committee to deal with co-ordination of production and .marketing on the lines of the international body which the Economic Commission is now discussing, but no definite proposals were submitted and no decision jas reached. The position is not made easier by the New Zealand Farmers’ Union cabled request to Mr. G. W. Forbes to ask for a free market in Britain for all New Zealand products.

“MEAN’S REDUCED PRODUCTION.”

MR. GROUNDS OPPOSES QUOTA.

Auckland, July 14.

Mr. W. Grounds (Hokianga), a member of the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board, in course of a statement opposing the dairy quota, said that beyond doubt a quota meant reduced production. Thera was no other market in sight for New Zealand’s surplus production, in spite of recent vague intimations to the contrary. If the weather was favourable next season he could not see what would hinder the continued growth in output. A decreased use of fertilisers might reduce the output in more settled areas but not in the outlying districts.