BRITAIN’S PROBLEM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 8, 21 October 1941, Page 5

BRITAIN’S PROBLEM.

REHABILITATION AFTER WAR.

GREATER EXPORT TRADE NEEDED.

NEW YORK October 19,

The Washington correspondent of tlio “New York Times” says that, on the theory that in the post-war world it will be inevitable that England must experience a shift in international trade favourable to herself if she is to achieve satisfactory rehabilitation, the United States Department of Commerce said the only sound means of realising the necessary end was the creation of a world which would permit England to export more than she did before the war. Failure to create the necessary conditions for England to export more than she did before the war, it was maintained, would result not only in a precarious England, but in turn must lead to widespread distress in the whole realm of international primary production. No other solution is seen than that the North American Continent disposes itself to the import of goods on a scale far larger than ever before, ■while England makes every possible effort to take advantage of the opportunity offered.

After the Avar, a victorious England will obviously be a poorer England, and perhaps debtor to some major countries of supply. The bulk of such external assets as remain will be dependent for their earning power on the heavily-impaired, capacity of Britain to import at prices favourable to overseas producers.