EXPORT LICENSES

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21365, 8 March 1941, Page 16

EXPORT LICENSES

TRADE INTERFERED DEMAND ON SHIPPING SPACE AFTER-WAR EXPANSION (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, March 6 In spite of the boasts and threats of the Nazis, merchant ships were even now bringing into British ports a greater volume of materials and goods than in times of peace, said Sir Cecil Weir, a member of the Industrial Export Council. Nevertheless, alternative uses for shipping space, especially the transport ot troops and stores to distant theatres of war, necessitated the closest scrutiny of exports and imports which could be permitted, even for the export industries. Sir Cecil urged exporters unlucky in not obtaining the materials they required not to lose heart but to rationalise the use of their plant preparatory to the great expansion of international trade which would follow the overthrow of Nazi tyranny. The President of the Board of Trade, Captain Oliver Lyttelton, made it clear today that the Government’s policy for concentrating production in connection with the limitation of supplies did not require the formulation of a scheme of co-opera-tion or rationalisation for whole industries. It was a question to be tackled by individual firms, which, by making arrangements for the wisest use of available resources among themselves, would qualify for privileges, including protection of their staff from enlistment at a lower reservation age and help in safeguarding their supplies of raw materials.