TRADE WITH SWEDEN
[To the Editor of the SrEe.r.vron.1 SIR,—May I offer a word of comment on the letter in your columns on the above subject from Mr. A. Baldwin Raper? Speaking with knowledge of the country, Mr. Raper rightly emphasizes the value of the visit which the Prince of Wales and Prince George are paying next week to Sweden. But he does not mention what to my mind is the most important section in the report of our Commercial Counsellor in Stockholm, from which he quotes. Slightly condensed, it reads as follows :
" The United Kingdom trader has to overcome the belief, common in Sweden, that Englishmen are slow to meet special requirements and are unaccommodating, that in many lines their packing methods are uneconomic, and that their weights, Measures, money and methods of stating, setting out, and counting quantities and prices are troublesome.
These words, to my mind, demand the- attention of every British exporter.'
Sweden, as Mi. Raper says, has lost seriously to Russia in the British timber market during the last few years, but, as the report points out, she still remains an important customer for British goods, it is scarcely possible to imagine that the cultural standards of the country will be so affected (by present difficulties) that it will not remain an important market for the high-class articles which it obtains from Crest Britain."
Will the Princes' visit be followed by an active campaign to prove to the Swedes that we are neither slow to meet their requirements nor unaccommodating in our methods ?-
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