INTER-EMPIRE TRADE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 249, 19 September 1929, Page 7

INTER-EMPIRE TRADE

BRITAIN AND CANADA. MR J. H. THOMAS’S MISSION. SUCCESSFUL ISSUE. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copy right.) (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. 18. Rt. Hon. J. H. Thomas, Minister of Employment, arrived at Liverpool to-day on his return from Canada. Mr Thomas stated in an interview: “I must lay my proposals, and any results in connection with my tour, before Cabinet and before Parliament. “I have not asked Canada to takO| things from us which she produces her- 1 self, but I felt I was entitled to put’ in a strong claim, haying regard to the Home Country being her largest single purchaser of wheat, apart from the ties of Empire. “Y/lien I made a comparison of the amount she purchased from us, as compared with the United States, I found that Canada was very ready to listen to the claim I was urging. “Canada knows we are her best customers now, and I urged her to reciprocate in the direction I have indicated,” added Mr Thomas. “I propose meeting all interested business parties in our country so that the necessary steps may be taken to give practical effect to my efforts. All this is only consistent with my statement when I took office, that there is no remedy for unemployment by artificial means. “The real solution is to get customers. That I set out to do. I know it is an unusual step for a British Cabinet Minister to play tlio role of commercial traveller, but the cause necessitated it and the result justified it.”

Mr Thomas admitted that he took out to Canada samples of British coal, of which tests were made. Orders would be placed for- British coal as a result.