The President of the Board of Trade recently spent a day in Manchester and discussed with representatives of industry and commerce ways and means of developing export over and above the needs of the Government, At a tiffin given in his honor, he sai am glad to think, that in recent weeks we were able to obtain very speedy statutory authority for a measure based upon the representations of the cotton industry. However great was the need for sympathy and understanding between the Government and the trading community on this question of export trade in peace-time, to~ day this need becomes an imperative duty.
It is unnecessary for me to emphasize in this the centre of our largest single exporting industry the significance of our export trade as an arm of warfare. You are already aware of the considerations that arise whether we think of export trade as a means of payment for foodstuffs, raw materials, and munitions, or whether we think of it as the means by which the Allies can assist and consolidate their relationships with neutrals and weaken the resources of the enemy in markets that are still open to the enemy "These considerations all call for close cooperation between the Government and the trading community. They call also for organization and direction so that our industrial capacity and manpower, besides providing to the fullest measure for the needs of our armed forces, may, at the same time, sustain the contribution which our economic front must make to the successful and speedy issue of the war. In these matters of national urgency we need the enthusiasm of the trading community, and their determination, even to the sacrifice of what might well be for them more immediately remunerative trade at home.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.