THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BUYER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 179, 16 August 1937, Page 4

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BUYER

"The theories that this country has become selfish, that wq are behaviqg improperly iii the face of the world, will not stand any examination whatever. The truth of the matter is that Greafc Britain, and after Great Britain the British Empire, is the best and most friendly neighhour that the world has. There is no country in the world which buys so much of the world's commodities as does this country, with ^ts sg-called tarift restrietions. Last year we imported from foreign eountries alone, apart from the Empire, £516,000,00CLworth of goods and produce. Who came next? The United States, with a population two and a-half times as great as ours, came second, hut with £24,000,000 hehind the total I haye mentioned. That shows very conclusively that this country is leading the world in the matter of absorbing the prpducts of others. Whai is the truth, according to the Board of Trade returns, of our trade with the United States of America? Our imports from the United States last year were £93,300,000, a very substantial figure, and our exports >to the United States were only £20,600,000."— Sir Henrv Page-Croft, M.P., in the House of Commons. "