BRITISH MARKET

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3551, 9 May 1939, Page 7

BRITISH MARKET

THE SYDNEY CONFERENCE ATTITUDE OF ENGLISH FARMERS Writing in the "Farmer and Stock Breeder," Mr Cleveland Fyfe, general secretary of the National Farmers' Union in Great Britain, declares that producers must support action based on the policy approved at the Sydney conference, and that prompt action with the Dominion farmers is necessary for -restoring remuneraive price levels. "Just as Mr Chamberlain at Ottawa pointed out that the British Government could make an essential contribution to the working of a scheme by controlling entry to the United Kingdom market, so at Sydney it was appreciated that voluntary action by Empire producers themselves through commodity councils was the alternative to regulation of imports by our Board of Trade," Mr Fyfe says in the article.

"It is, then, to the Sydney policy that farmers in Britain, in common with their brother farmers in the Dominions, must look ultimately for the restoration of remnuerative price levels, and for the reason given by Mr Chamberlain at Ottawa it should be possible to achieve that restoration without affecting the interests of the consumers.

"In other words, once we get the Sydney policy fully into operation and have achieved the results which Mr Chamberlain, regards as essential, the conditions will have been created under which farmers will be able to make farming pay. "In the meantime, price insurance measures must be maintained and extended, and when the Sydney policy is in full operation these measures will remain to safeguard our producers of the staple farm product against a fall of prices to an unduly low level. New Zealand Policy "It has been endorsed by the British and Australian Governments, and my information is that it is favourably regarded by the Dominion Government in Canada. I have been unable to ascertain precisely how matters stand in New Zealand, but press cuttings which I have seen appear to suggest that the Sydney policy, involving producer-control, docs not fit in with the economic policy of the New Zealand Government.

"I feel confident that, if that be the oilicial view in New Zealand, it must be based upon a complete misapprehension of the actual objectives which wee agreed upon at Sydney and of the real needs of the situation as defined by Mr Chamberlain in his Ottawa speech. "As a result of Governmental action, the principles of the Sydney policy has been applied in the case of beef, mutton, and lamb —with definite limitations—and there is a possibility, I understand, that it may be similarly applied for the purpose of regulating the ilow to the British market of supplies of processed milks.

"This Governmental action has been taken, doubtless, because of the delay in implementing the Sydney resolutions, and I trust that before long the producers' organisations in the Dominions will be in a position to intimate their preparedness to go ahead with the establishment of commodity councils wherever necessary to carry out all the purposes which were agreed to by the Empire Producers' Conference. Bearings of Present Situation "In considering action in furtherance of the Sydney policy, we cannot of course, afford to forget the bearings of the present international situation upon the economic problems with which we are concerned. But, to my mind commodity councils would provide an invaluable instrument for the solution of the difficulties which the international situation raises, and in that connection I cannot do better than quote one further excerpt from Mr Chamberlain's Ottawa speech:

"If on this matter and in respect of commodities sold on the sterling market the united efforts of the British Empire succeeded in raising to a suitable level the wholesale prices of the commodities concerned, and at the same time substituting an orderly and even adaptation of supply to demand for the present violent fluctuations and alterations of prosperity and ruin, the Empire would thereby have offered to the world that lead which is so frequently called for and which might find effectual

backing at any conference called to consider the more difficult and complex problems of world prices. "These are sentiments which were expressed from more thai* one quarter during the sessions of the Sydney conference. From the agricultural standpoint they are undeniably sound. They have a tremendous significance from the standpoint of world economic appeasement. The one issue that exists as far as the Empire is conI

corned is whether primary producers shall go straight ahead to carry out the policy which their spokesmen agreed to at Sydney 12 months ago, or whether it shall he left to the British Government to regulate imports to achieve the essential purpose defined by Mr Chamberlain. "From the .standpoint of the best interests of Empire producers, all the arguments favour prompt action bv organised producers them- !

selves in support of the Sydney policy."