COLONIAL EMPIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 August 1939, Page 7

COLONIAL EMPIRE

PRODUCTION AND TRADE. ACTIVITIES OF MARKETING BOARD. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 15. The first report of the Colonial Empire Marketing Board, which was set up in 1937 by Lord Harlech, then Mr Ormsby-Gore, Secretary of the Colonies, to help "colonial territories to develop their own resources of wealth and to sell more goods and sell those goods to better advantage,” states that the board began operations in March, 1938, and its work during the first year can be divided into two main sections —first, to put into the mind of the general public at Home a far clearer picture of Britain's possessions overseas; secondly, to investigate and improve the ways in which leading colonial products are brought to their market. Among the means employed by the board to create interest in the resources of the colonial Empire arc a short, brightly written book on the history and development of the colonies which is to appear shortly and films showing how the colonies are administered and their populations cared for. The Glasgow Exhibition and the New York World Fair have provided other opportunities which the board has seized to bring Britain's distant possessions before millions of eyes. Plans are being made to ensure that at similar future exhibitions the colonies and their resources shall be even more attractively presented. The board’s secretariat has handled inquiries relating to more than 50 different colonial products, ranging alphabetically from agaragar to wool. Detailed marketing investigations have followed in the cases of arrowroot, fresh limes, flax and passion fruit juice.