BRITAIN CAN AFFORD ARMS PROGRAMME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 221, 19 September 1938, Page 9

BRITAIN CAN AFFORD ARMS PROGRAMME.

ECONOMIST'S VIEW. Remarkable Productivity Revealed. GRUELLING TIME ON MARKETS United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 18. The burden of the most gruelling week since the Great War has fallen chiefly on gilt-edged securities and the foreign bond market. Brokers are unable to recall a time when giltedgeds dropped four points in a single day only to regain losses the day after. The eminent economist, Mr. J. Meynard Keynes, performed a service by turning the minds of City businessmen from the crisis by drawina; attention to the extraordinary productivity of British industry. It appears that the real productivity of industry as a whole has increased 20 per cent, which means that industry is able to support a 20 per cent higher standard of living. It means also that the British can afford an armament programme which would have seriously curtailed the standard of living 20 years ago. The crisis obscured the outlook from London wool sales. None will venture definite opinions. The opening will probably show that everyone will wait for others to start the bidding. Bradford and France, it appears, are anxious to obtain supplies of crossbreds. Germany also needs fairly big quantities of wool. Butter is weak as trie result of the general disinclination to enter commitments. Prices and nominal business are likely to remain unsettled until the crisis is over.

Nobody is interested in Canadian arrivals, except at lowest prices, which are at present quoted at 112/, compared with 116/ and 114/ for Australian.