ACCESS TO MARKETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1943, Page 3

ACCESS TO MARKETS

ESSENTIAL TO PRODUCERS MR MULHOLLAND CRITICISES ATLANTIC CHARTER. ADDRESS TO FARMERS' UNION CONFERENCE. (By Telegraph—-“Times-Age” Special.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Touching upon post-war conditions, in his address at the annual conference of the New Zealand Faimers Union today, the Dominion President (Mr W. W. Mulholland) made a rather interesting point with regard to the Atlantic Charter. Quoting the paragraphs in the charter which relate to access on equal terms to the trade and raw mateiials of the world, and to “the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field.” he observed: “From the point of view of an agricultural exporting country such as ours, an important omission is obvious. Equality of access to raw materials is specifically laid down, but there is no mention of access to markets. It has seemed to me that undue emphasis has been laid on access, or want of access, to raw materials immediately prior to the war, and since. The historical fact is that countries which are usually regarded as having lacked access to raw materials did not lack that access because the raw materials were inaccessible, but because they deliberately closed their markets to the raw materials that were available. Germany was not denied wool, but deliberately limited the amount that she would accept in order to build up self-sufficiency by developing the artificial product. France and Italy deliberately refused to accept wheat when millions of tons of wheat were clogging the stores of the wheat producing countries of the world.” Going on to state that similar conditionsTiad applied to rubber. Mr Mulholland said it was unquestionable that the people of the countries mentioned had suffered through lack of raw materials. but equally the producers of raw materials had suffered through lack of markets, not because there was not a need for their products, but because, by deliberate action on the part of governments, markets were denied to them.

Adding that it was possible that the emphasis on raw materials rather than markets for them, in the Atlantic Charter, had been influenced by American opinion, Mr Mulholland went on to quote some expressed American ideas on the subject of post war trade. It had been suggested by Americans. amongst other things, that the lend-lease agreements would lead after the war to an international control of the sources of raw materials, and that Britain would abandon the policy of inter-Imperial preferential trade embodied in the Ottawa agreements. Quoting also suggestions advanced by the British delegation at the recent International Food Conference, in Virginia. and other reports, Mr Mulholland said it was obvious that there was a tremendous weight of opinion in favour of a continuation of a very considerable amount of State control of purchases of foodstuffs, and also of international control of the production of foodstuffs.

Criticising this trend, Mr Mulholland expressed the opinion that it had become urgent that the primary producers of the Empire should systematically clarify their views on the problems raised and the policies indicated. with the object of obtaining general agreement on main policy in regard to their particular interests. It would be necessary, however, first to conduct preliminary discussions, which could well be done by means of correspondence, though advantage might be taken of the presence from time to time in the various Dominions and Britain of representative farmers to conduct unofficial personal talks. Mr Mulholland contended in conclusion that: “A farmers’ peace treaty policy must put great stress on freedom of international markets and anything that may stand in the way of that freedom, whether deliberate policy or the result of unwise conditions, must be vigorously resisted.”