The Press Saturday, September 10, 1921. British Trade.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17247, 10 September 1921, Page 8

The Press Saturday, September 10, 1921. British Trade.

Shortly after the completion of the first sis months of the present year, the London "Daily Telegraph" dealt with the conditions and prospects of trade in the Old Country in language that must hare arrested the attention of every reader. It declared in brief that the condition of the country was more desperate than it had been in living memory. A paralysis, hitherto partly disguised by the ddles paid under the TJtt- : employment Act, was creeping | upon it and would end in ruining it unless its progress was arrested, by a great effort on the part of the whole nation. There was no approaoh to a balance in trade, because while the country had been cont>umin4 heartily it had been producing little or nothing The decrease in the export of manufactured goods was serious, and of equally grave importance—because affecting future trade and employment—was the heavy decrease in the imports of raw materials, , a feature of the nation's trade that continued tip to the end of June, the latest month of which full details have yet reached us. The serious straits to which a vast industrial nation had, been reduced had arisen, remarked our contemporary, after a long war, which had destroyed more of tho country's wealth than all the conflicts of the last century. "Our sav"ings have gone—consumed in a noble " cot only. ha3.nothing been "done to replace them, but we have " been steadily adding to our indebted- " tu»i. and to-day England is, to all

" intents and purposes, workless, so far | *'as productive industry is concerned." j It must bo confessed that though the trade returns for August give ground for a hopo that the worst of the depression is past—they are better than those of any month since April they arc still very far from satisfactory. The folloiving table gives tho chiei figures for cadi moii'h «ince th-e beginning if ine year : Impor!;. Experts. Re-export. 1923. - £ £ Jar.. .. 11T.050.7d"! 02,73 C,004 0,00j,110 frV l 96,973,711 'ii.iSl.73! 5,004,308 ilarc'i 93,7*1.051 Apr>" ,Sb < 8..*j23.66'2 Jiav »i.3P6,2GS 43.038,0 m 7.231,836 J uric 85.182,451 3S.'£'2,-2'iß 7.080,764 Ju!v 80,372.739 !3.172.: > ,SD 8.6<U.-:&0 Aujtis-i .. M,132,313 .-],3-;G,307 0,997,773 The figures indicate the revival of trade that lias taken place since Ike termination of the f-oal strike. As would be expected, coal has disappeared from the li.-t of imports which show lucreasi'S over tl:o corresponding month oi last year, hut the various important lines of raw materials still show marked decreases as com pp. red with Inst August's figures. A comparison with the results of the eight completed months of the current year with those of the same period oi last year indicates, however, only too nlainly the extent to which British trade has suffered through industrial disturbances and weakened foreign markets. The oomparison is furnished in tho following table:— Overseas Tryie for Eight Morula er.ded August 31st. Import". Exports. Re-exports. £ £ £ 13-20 .. 1,313,634,032 889,822,123 16f5,395,60fl 1921 ..v, 717,426,497 520,731,560 G1,511,547 Decrease. „ 1921 .'. €32,208,135 363,090,5(i3 1&0,5u4,0£1 Even allowing for the fall in values that has taken placo since last year, it v.-ill be recognised that these figures disclose an unsatisfactory position. It must also bo taken into account that tho country's invisible exports, already depleted by the sale, during the war period, of such large amounts of British holdings in foreign countries, must havo suffered further reduction b5 r the fact of bo much British shipping being idle, and therefore earning no freigjht or dividends. No lational person suggests, at least with the expectation of being believed, that this condition of things could be improved, by any kind of tariff. Britain needs greater industry on the part of her workers, lower costs of production, and an improvement in the purchasing power of her customers abroad. High tariffs will not help her in any of these respects, altlhough we suppose a few benighted people may somehow imagine that Tariff Reform would make production cheaper and Britain's customers mare prosperous. It is olear that an immense amount of Eanf work mutt be done if the leeway shown in the figures we have quoted is to be made up, and Britain restored to something like her former commercial soundness and prosperity. And hard work lids never been .more lacking than it is to-day in all departments of industry, which is why the prices of British goods aro higher than those of Britain's trade, competitors. Tho latter are working as they never worked before. Germany, in particular, is making enormous efforts, not merely to retrieve her position, but to secure world supremacy as a manufacturing and exporting nation. The "will to '' work" hae, as our London eon temporary remarks, become with the Germans in defeat an absorbing passion; Britain cannot hope to regain her farmer position, nor even to hold tier own, cntil she shows hertelf inspired by a similar spirit. Too many of her workers give aa little return as possible for tho highest wage they can equeexo from overburdened industries, -whereas in Germany, it k Btated, the worker puts his best endeavours into work that pays him the equivalent of sixpence art hour. No , one wants to see Britiifls. workSien toiling for such a paltry toward; all that ia .asked is that they shall give good work for good pay.