BRITAIN GAINING GROUND

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 13

BRITAIN GAINING GROUND

STRONGEST FINANCIAL COUNTRY ' MR RUNCIMAN REVIEWS POSITION (BHITISD OmCUL WT.tZLESS.) (Received October 13, 5.5 p.m.) i RUGBY, October 12. The President of the Board of Trade (Mr Walter Runciman) said that Great Britain was in the happy position of regaining bit by bit her old position of the major trader of the world. A comparison of the figures for the first half of the last three years showed in the vast majority of cases that the United Kingdom's share of imports into foreign countries had either been steady or had increased, and in some cases the increases had been very largo. By contrast with the summer of 1931 Great Britain had now attained the position of being the strongest financial country in the world with the best credit. She had been able to place her national finances upon a foundation almost as secure as before the war. The Government was now going to do what it could for the British textile industryj after that it would turn its attention to steel. Alhough there was hqw a long list of import duties in force in Great Britain the cost.of living remained very much where it was in 1931, an achievement without a parallel in the history of modern industrial countries.