TRADING RELATIONS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20465, 9 July 1936, Page 10

TRADING RELATIONS

BRITAIN AND DOMINIONS Ways and means of improving the trading relations between the United Kingdom and the Dominions, particularly Australia, were the chief subjects of discussion at the annual general meeting of British members of the Australian Association of British Manufacturers in London recently. Mr Malcolm MacDonald Secretary for Dominion Affairs, said that Australia was a young country and must be allowed to grow and develop, and that this policy must be encouraged and assisted by the Mother Country. Mr MacDonald contended that Australia was capable of supporting a far greater population than 6.500,000 people, and that this end could be achieved only by the steady development of manufacturing industries. Such a view was not incompatible with the Ottawa Agreements. In reply, Mr Earle Page, Australian Minister of Commerce, pointed out that Australia was Britain’s third best customer and her second biggest supplier. This position, he said, could not be maintained unless a definite plan of Empire development and expansion was worked out. He suggested a 10year programme to secure the markets, investment, and migration necessary to ensure a continuance of the present trade relations between the Dominions and the Mother Country. An Empire policy of rationalisation for the secondary as well as for the primary industries was needed. After the industries had agreed among themselves, it would be for the Governments of the Empire to ratify their agreements and clear away administrative and legislative obstacles to their fullest co-operation.