INDUSTRIAL RECOVERY

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12620, 3 December 1926, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL RECOVERY

IMPERIAL COOPERATION NEW ZEALAND’S LATE TRADE COMMISSIONER AN OPTIMISTIC NOTE Mr R. W. Dalton, senior British TAde Commissioner in Australia, and once British Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, and well known in Wellington, has just returned from another visit -to the Old. Country,, and makes some interesting , observations regarding the industrial position in the Empire. “Just as people in Great Britain are realising the benefits of the discussion of Imperial policy between the parts of the Empire the leaders in industry are'beginning to realise the . desirability of Imperial discussions in industry and commerce,” says Mr Dalton. “I am sure that when the industrial interests in Great Britain and the Dominions see this possibility clearly we shall achieve not only a greater understanding of our individual problems, but a development of definite economic value’. After discussions with leading men in British industry on these lines—the names of some of these men are alriiost household words—l am satisfied that they will be ready to do what they can to bring about co-opera-tion between tho parts of the Empire. T hope that in the next few years some movement of this kind may succeed.”

SOMiE INDUSTRIES WILL BOOM. Discussing his observations of trade conditions in Great. Britain. Mr Dalton said: “I arrived in Great Britain just after the general strike began. It was very clear that underlying the strike crisis there was, among industrial leaders, a quiet optimism. It was felt that, industrially. Great Britain could at last ‘see daylight’ after all the troubles following the Great AVar, and that, given industrial peace, there was a definite promise of a complete trade- recovery. The experience of the general ' strike shows to what extent Great Britain has learned since the Great AVar to meet and overcome difficulties. A strike • of' that magnitude before the war would have been regarded as a. national disaster, through which it would he difficult, even impossible, for an - industrial country like Great Britain to live. The leaders of industry, however, faced the strike almost with equanimity, and certainly with • a nniet confidence that, they could live through it. and that after it was over there would be a, greater chance of complete economic recovery. It was a striking illustration of Great Britain’s capacity for dealing with a national crisis. Of course, British industries suffered severely and overseas trade suffered''another- set-back: hut conditions are not nearly so had as mifc be imagined. It is pot difficult to believe t.liat a boom in some industries will follow peace in the coal industry.”