EASTERN TRADE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1932, Page 7

EASTERN TRADE

NEED FOR PROPAGANDA.

CANBERRA, December 1. M r 0. L. B. Hope, .who for nearly 2C years has been engaged in trade in the East, said to-day in an interview that the time was never more ripe for Australian 'exporters to make a concerted effort to capture the Eastern market. At present, he said, America was taking large proportion of this trade. In normal timeg Australian exporters, principally of canned goods, should be able to undersell the Americans; but to-day, with the exchange in their favour, they should have an advantage of 50 per cent. Mr Hope urged that bureaux to advertise Australian products should be established in Penang, 'Singapore. Shanghai, and Hong Kong. In these places is how windows exhibiting Aus tralian goods should be set up. Canada was about to establish a bureaux of this nature, and unless Australian exporters ‘woke np” they would find " large market, which naturally belonged to Australia, taken from them. Mr Hope also advocated the education of Australian exporters in East, ern methods, particularly regardingthe labelling of goods. “The point is,” he said, “that the business is lying at Australia s door Advertising propaganda should be started in every important centre. I 1 would not cost much. For the expenditure of a few thousand pounds Australia would gain to the amount of millions, for the 'East will take almost anything you send to it.”