EMPIRE TRADE.

Wairarapa Age, 8 October 1936, Page 3

EMPIRE TRADE.

DECISIONS OF CONGRESS IN WELLINGTON.

WELLINGTON, October 7.

A last-minute rush set in at the fourteenth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire today, and several remits of a more- or less technical nature were quickly disposed of. Mr. W. Mansfield (London) moved a resolution, which was carried, calling attention to the standard forms of certificate of value and origin adopted by the Imperial Customs Conference of 1021 and the Imperial Economic Conference of 1923 for use in parts of the Empire which levy ad valorem duties on the basis of current domestic values and invoice values, and expressing regret that notwithstanding the attempts made to standardise Customs requirements considerable divergence still existed. It was recommended that Empire countries should adopt a sufficiently uniform principle governing the extension of tariff preference to the produce and manufactures of the British Empire to permit of the adoption of a standard form of invoice.

The Congress, on the motion of Mr. B. Sudgen (Spen Valley), expressed its concern at the prospect of still further changes in the charges of code telegrams which are apparently to be recommended to the next International Telecommunications Conference, meeting at Cairo in 1938. The resolution stated that it was desired to emphasise the inconvenience of all such charges and to urge the need for reducing the cost of telegrams. While recognising that a unified rate per word for both plain language and code telegrams was logical in principle, the Congress was opposed to its introduction unless it could be brought about without an increase in the level of charges for code messages.

The following Sydney resolution relating to the ten-letter code was carried by a large majority:—“That this Congress is of the opinion that the use of ten-letter oodes should be reintroduced between countries which are members of the British Empire where the use of non-British services can be avoided, and that the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire take the necessary steps to endeavour to bring this about.” A resolution from the council of the federation emphasised the importance, in the interests of Empire trade, of the extension of intra-Empire telephone communication to make it as complete as possible, and expressed the hope that services should be established between those countries not yet linked up. Attention was called to the absence of a service between the United Kingdom and British Malaya. This was moved by M r « W. M. Birks (Montreal) and carried. The desirability of uniform aviation insurance throughout the Empire was expressed in a remit from the Sydney Chamber of Commerce. The remit was carried.—(P.A.)