WORLD TRADE SPEED-UP.

Shannon News, 11 January 1929, Page 2

WORLD TRADE SPEED-UP.

NEW ZEALAND’S PART IN COMING RECORD FAIR. > ENGLAND’S BUSY FORTNIGHT.

(By the Right Hon. the Lord, Strathspey.) The British Industries Fair, which is to be held again in London anil Birmingham from February -18 to. March 1, has been called “Britain’s Shop Window,’’ and last year I named it “The Empire’s Market Place.” Bui" a new name has to bo found for n now. It has acqui red a new dignity and importance. . ■ . The Fair is not just a series of stalls where casual buyers pick up a bargain or two. It is the common meeting ground of the Empire’s manufacturers , and producers and the world’ buyers. New British idustries are built lip there; markets are found for Empire products for which hitherto there has ,• been no demand; British firms "which have no salesmen in the Dominions and Colonies, and firms in the Dominions and Colonies which have. no permanent buyers ii\ England are brought into touch for the first time; foreigners who flock to the Fair come into direct contact with the representatives of the Empire producers; and the final result is a fillip to world trade that may eventually mean the re-writing of. the text-books on commercial geography. There is no jloubt about the lair s • usefulness to "the Dominions and Colonies. That is proved by the increasing use that has been made of the Empire . Marketing Board’s section. At the last Fair, South Africa was a newcomer At the next Fair Canada is to show her produce for the first time, and so the section continues to grow. Next February the exhibitors under the auspices of the Empire Marketing; Board will include: the sllome Country and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, (South Africa, India, the Eastern African Dependencies, the Irish Free' State, Southern Rhodesia; British Guina, Cyprus, the Gold Coast, Malay States, the West Indies, Mauritius and Sier.ra Leone. _ , The Canadian Government, in addition to its display of produce and rawmaterials, has taken a hall of 10,000 square feet for the use of its mariuftfeturers. This will be an exhibition in itself and Canada’s greatest effort' in this direction since the British Eriipire Exhibition at Wembley. THE BIGGEST EVER.

The Fair as a whole, taking London and Birmingham together, has doubled its size in three years, and the fortkfeqming Fair is to be the largest and most representative ever helff In London will be shown the latest developments in the chemieal industry; new textiles and ch thes; food stuffs; 'the best pottery and glassware that the country can produce; leather and leather goods that are unbeaten for . quality, scientific, photographic and wireless equipment; stationery and office equipment; new designs in jewellery; sports goods—acknowledged W be the best in the world —and toys that beat the German productions. In Birmingham there will be the products of the heavier industries ■ machine tools, quarry and mine equipment, electrical installations for factory and home, gas and oil engines, construction materials, hardware, and metal and hemp goods. The constantly increasing size and importance of the exhibits attract an increasing number of buyers each year. The increasing number of buyers, in turn, makes it more and more worth while exhibiting. It is the opposite of a vicious circle —a healthy trade movement that is speeded up each year by its own momentum —with a helpful push, of course, by the organisers. Thus the more buyers that come to •the Fair from the Dominions and Colonies, the greater will be the general progress of the Fair and the better the business done by the Empire producers. The buyer who comes from a country overseas will not onty be able to see in a fortnight all the most saleable goods that Britain and other parts of the Empire.can offer; he will know that he is helping the marketing of the produce of his own country. To visit England next February means good business and good patriotism combined, and from imy own knowledge of them, I can say that such an opportunity is not one that will be lightly passed over by the leading businriess men overseas.