2 Anclosure.
39
MR OUTHORN'S SPRECH
Officer Administering the Government on Use of Empire Goods.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Southom said:
I have to thank you
Kr. Braga, ladies and gentleman,
for the honour you have done me in asking me to open this the
first Empire Products Fair in Hongkong. It signifies the
Colony's contribution to the great effort now being made
throughout the British mpire to foster British Trade, I
should like at once to correct any impression that our
efforts to foster British Trade are in any way antagonistic
to other nations.
As British subjecte in a British Colony we are entitled
to consider our own fellow country men first for nature
has implanted in every right thinking man an instinctive
affection for his native land, and in these difficult days
our first duty lies towards our own people but we are
confident that in improved trade within the Empire lies one
of the main hopes of world regeneration. If we can restore
trade prosperity to the Empire its effect will spread far
beyond the confines of that simpåre and will go a long
way towards restoring that world-wide prosperity for whì ch
we have locked in vain for the last eighteen years. England
has just embarked on the greatest change of its fiscal
policy which it has seen for more than two generations
and it is the duty of every British subject to do his
utmost to make that policy a success.
Most of us were brought up in a Free Trade atmosphere
and we may find it difficult to attune our minds to the new
policy, but in loyalty to the momentous decisions of the
British Government - Cecisions taken only after the most
anxious