EMPIRE TRADE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 51, 30 January 1932, Page 7

EMPIRE TRADE

DOMINIONS AND BRITAIN.

NEED FOR RECIPROCITY.

OTTAWA CONFERENCE PREPARATIONS.

(United Press Association.—By Electrio Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) • , ' RUGBY; Jan. 28.

The President of the Board of Trade, Mr Walter Runciman, and Major W. E. Elliott, of the Treasury, accompanied the Secretary of the Dominions, Mr J. H. Thomas, when he met a deleg action representing industrial and comihercial interests this afternoon to discuss the preparations for the Ottawa Conference.

: Referring to the development of secondary industries in the Dominions, Mr Thomas said that British industry should recognise that the encouragement, of such industries was inevitable, and they should harmonise their policy with that development. . - ~ Reciprocity must be the keynote of all dealings between the parties to the conference. The Dominions through their • association with the British Commonwealth received a great advantage not only in regal’d to defence, but also through the fact that their loans ranked as trustee securities here. ■>' Sir Gilbert Vyle, chairman of the British Committee on Empire Trade, urged that as the conference would be mainly economic the Government delegation should be accompanied by trade and industrial advisers. Mr Thomas- welcomed the formation of the British Committee on Empire Trade, to which the Government could havo ready access on technical questions, and promised, to give sympathetic consideration to Sir Gilbert Vyie’s suggestion. ' ,

INTERESTS OF THE EMPIRE.

CONCESSIONS TO BE MADE

LONDON, Jan. 28. At the meeting with commercial interests to-day, Mr J. H. Thomas, Secretary for, the Dominions,' added that Britain would not go to Ottawa in _ a huckstering spirit, but fully recognising that it would be necessary for individual parts to make concessions in the interests of the Empire. 'The great thing was to work toward Imperial unity and consolidation, _ and for the Dominions to. meet Britain in the eamo spirit of reciprocity. Sir .William Lees, on behalf of the British Chambers of Commerce, emShasised that, without detracting from ttawa’s importance, it must be remembered that Imperial trade was simply a part of the world’s trade. Sir Arthur Duckham, promising the support of the Federation of British Industries, said that one of the great needs at Ottawa would be to embody the true Empire spirit in place of nationalism.

A great deal depended on the manner in which the proposals were made, necessitating a realisation of conditions and problems throughout the Empire. Sir Alan Anderson spoke on behalf of shipping interests.