PRINCE’S ADVICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 593, 20 February 1929, Page 9

PRINCE’S ADVICE

Urges Modern Equipment and Methods in Industry UNEMPLOYMENT REMEDY URGING British industrial leaders to scrap old methods of manufacture and salesmanship, the Prince of Wales, in a sound speech, argued that it would help to provide a remedy for unemployment. The British Prime Minister followed with a hopeful reference to Empire and world trade, and peace.

Reed. IX a.m. LONDON. Tuesday. In the course of a speech at the dinner given in connection with the British Industries Fair, the Prince of Wales said the most important problem in Britain to-day was to find work for the million and a-half unemployed. His Royal Highness said it must be remembered that although the distress on the coalfields had been most prominent of late, there were many thousands of people equally distressed in other industries. Many fine recruits for overseas settlement had been enlisted lately from the districts which were especially distressed. The Prince urged the leaders of industry to scrap obsolete plants and adopt modern equipment and methods. Given those, he said, the British workman would hold his own with anybody in the world. Another need was efficient, up-to-date salesmanship. Did the standard .of British salesmanship equal that of British workmanship? Elis Royal Highness said he was very much interested in that question, because he had never tried to sell anything to anybody except a few horses. He was also interested because he had travelled a great deal, and sometimes he had come across a British community thousands of miles from Home anxious to buy British goods but unable to do so because those goods were neither suitable nor practical to their locality. “SOMETHING WRONG”

He could only surmise that there must be something utterly wrong. Local requirements and conditions were not sufficiently studied. “I may not have the right, but I do feel it to be my duty,” said the Prince, “to tell our manufacturers when I have found anything wrong with the marketing end. I am glad to hear that a representative committee is now studying the matter of salesmanship. I hope its recommendations will include among the reqLiisites for a salesman, personal knowledge of the goods, the conditions and the language of the country in which the goods are to be sold; then tact and good manners. If a ‘boss’ could go out, he would do far better than other people.” MR. BALDWIN’S VIEWS

Speaking after the Prince of Wales the Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, said the fair was to-day a microcosm of Imperial trade. More and more, year after year, they wanted to see trade of all kinds grow and increase throughout the Dominions as at Home, and he hoped that some day would see the fair become the great annual market of the British Commonwealth of Nations. PEACE OF THE EMPIRE

The significance of the British Commonwealth of Nations did not lie in the fact of so much of the map being painted red. It lay in this, that over those vast expanses of the world, with its millions of races and hundreds of

faiths and tongues, there was peace and no one dare break it. He hoped the day would come in the world at large when if two nations

wanted to fight there will be some power which would say, “Move on.” There were to-day signs o£ more stable conditions and better trade. They wanted stable conditions, stable currency and better trade in all the countries of the world. There could be no such thing as happy and prosperous trade in one country alone. “We trust that this year may see a gradual_ emerging from the slough of depression in which too manv of the nations in past years have been fast bound and lettered,” he concluded. QUEEN AND PRINCES VISIT TO EMPIRE FAIR N.Z. EXHIBIT INSPECTED (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Reed. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, Tuesday. Although the Queen, the Prince of Wales and Prince George spent two .iu :\s traversing six miles of avenues in the British Industries Fair, they found it impossible collectively to inspect all the stalls within the time. Therefore they agreed to divide forces, the Queen taking one side and the Princes the opposite. This arrangement varied in favour of the Dominions and colonies, with the result that Australia, Canada and New Zealand notably received an unexpectedly prolonged inspection. Both the Prince of Wales and the Queen paid special attention to Australia. The Prince of Wales said that from independent sources he had learned that Australia was doing exceptionally good work in popularising its products. The Queen commended the shrewdness of the Australian stallholders for selling twopenny samples of sultanas and butter, and thereby cheaply popularising these products. DECEPTIVE “LAMB” Mr. Drew, publicity officer for New Zealand, received the Royalties, who were impressed with tlie lighting scheme, which gave the effect of sunshine and warmth, in contrast to the bitter weather outside. The Queen particularly inspected and praised a series of New Zealand views. She was deceived by a fine display of New Zealand lamb. “They must keep well in this cold weather,” she remarked, and laughed heartily when she was told that the carcases were of wax. The Queen purchased an ash-tray for the King and also gold-fitted case containing an opera glass, a powder-puff, lipstick, mirror and comb, concerning which she remarked that it would do for the Duchess of York. The Queen’s purchases for Princess EUizabeth included a doll’s folding pram.