Vast Colonial Trade

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 651, 1 May 1929, Page 9

Vast Colonial Trade

NATIONS OF THE EMPIRE

Nearly £500,000,000 in 1927

British Official Wireless

Received 11.16 a.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. IX the House of Commons, during the debate on the Colonial Office Estimates, Mr. L. S. Amery, Secretary for the Colonies, mentioned that the total trade of the Colonial Empire had by 1927 come very close to £500,000,000, and he had no doubt that the figures of the present year would exceed it.

YVTHILE the situation from the viewpoint of the rubber-growers was still difficult and anxious, the gloomy predictions made when the Government decided on the scheme of restriction had not been' fulfilled. There was no sudden swamping of the market last November, with vast stores of rubber held back. On the contrary, the price rose from that date, and while it was still under Is, that price represented more than the same price would have represented under the restrictions, because it represented rubber produced under more favourable conditions from the viewpoint of overhead charges, and, he believed, produced in almost every case with increasing efficiency all round. Referring to the Colonial Development Fund, the creation of which had been foreshadowed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Amery said such a fund would contribute not only to the welfare of the inhabitants of the colonies concerned, but directly in orders for the equipment of railways and other public works, and indirectly in the general expansion of trade. It would

contribute to the creation of muchneeded employment in this country. Mr. Amery announced that he had appointed a committee with the following terms of reference: To consider the existing system of appointments in the Colonial Office to the public services of dependencies not in the possession of responsible Governments, and to make such recommendations as might be considered desirable. He said these were wide terms of reference, so as to give the committee a very free hand. Sir Warren Fisher would preside, and the other members would include Sir Samuel Wilson. Sir Henry Bell, Mr. John Buchan, M.F., Sir W. Riddell, Sir John Palmer, Sir Robert Hamilton, M.P., Mr. Meiklejohn, Dr. Cyril Norwood, headmaster of Harrow, Sir Russel Scott, Dr, Shields. M.P., and Mr. Tomkinson.

Britain’s exports to tlie colonial dependencies in 1905 were £18,000,000, and in 1927 £55,000,000. The imports from the colonies in the same years were £19,500,000 and £60,000,000 respectively.