RAW MATERIALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1938, Page 5

RAW MATERIALS

SUPPLIES FROM COLONIAL TERRITORY.

“It is said.” stated Viscount Samuel in the House of Lords, “that the Commission of the League of Nations reports that only 3 per cent of the world’s consumption of imported raw materials comes from colonial territory. Therefore it would appear at first sight that a matter that affects only 3 per cent is unimportant and that what matters is the 97 per cent of the production, which comes from other countries which are not colonies. But the 3 per cent, translated into terms of quantities, represents an enormous amount, and when that 3 per cent is applied to particular commodities the percentage is, of course, very much greater than three. In certain raw materials the colonial production is of a much higher order; but, apart from that, as the commission points out in its report, it is a question not only of quantity, but also of indispensability. In our bodies we have vitamins which as a percentage of our bulk are infinitesimal, and yet without them we sicken and die. Some of these raw materials coming from colonial territories are of prime importance and are, indeed, indispensable to the nations concerned.”