In the late 1930s New Zealand was running low on financial reserves. Finance minister Walter Nash visited London in April 1939 to seek loans and to reassure the British that New Zealand was not going to introduce a major campaign of import controls and substitution that would damage British exports. British bankers and politicians were unimpressed, but offered assistance subject to very harsh terms. When the Second World War broke out later in 1939 Britain suddenly offered to buy New Zealand’s entire exports in meat and dairy products.
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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
The Standard, 29 June 1939, p. 9 (N-P 1683-9)
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