CANADAS TRADE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20261, 9 November 1935, Page 17

CANADAS TRADE

PRIME MINISTER’S VISIT TO WASHINGTON FEARS OF APPREHENSION IN BRITAIN United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 8, 10.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, November 7. Although it is fairly well established the purpose of the visit of Mr W. Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of Canada) who arrived here to-day, is to begin discussions with President Roosevelt to-morrow on the question of a Canadian-United States trade agreement. Considerable interest has been aroused here by the Prime Minister’s disclaimer that his Washington visit had any other reason than affording him a holiday. He had originally planned to take that holiday in London, but had changed his plans since he did not wish to go from the heat of his own political campaign to the heat of another. Journalists, in commenting on Mr Mackenzie King’s statement, made in an interview, freely declared it to be an astute politician’s deliberate effort to soften apprehensions in London over the possibility that Canada’s huge wheat reserves might figure in the reciprocity negotiations. British interests, it is reported, desire Canada to release at least 100,000,000 bushels of this wheat to the world markets in order to lower the commodity prices and thereby relieve the Bank of England of the necessity of buying more gold with which to meet the demands for an increased note circulation. The point remains that Mr Mackenzie King is interested in “unshackling Canada’s export trade.” Reciprocity with America will not be easy, since both countries are producers of identical articles of commerce on which both want major tariff concessions. The Prime Minister will probably proceed to London after his Washington visit, In the interests of the “unshackling” mentioned.