COMMERCIAL SURVEY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 67, 12 December 1932, Page 9

COMMERCIAL SURVEY

London Stock Markets INDUSTRY’S PROBLEMS Retail Trade Enjoying Boom JUBILANT SHOPKEEPERS (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received, Dec. 11, G. 30 p.m.) London, Dec. 10. The stock markets have been little affected by the uncertainties regarding war debts arrangements with the exception of a restriction of the volume of business. Gilt-edged securities have been marked up. all round from the levels of a fortnight ago. Australians are particularly linn as a result of reinvestment orders. The attitude of the Stock Exchange regarding the war debts position is well described by the “Statist,” which says: “A belief has persisted that though the December payments will duly be met in one form or another, future payments will, by agreement with the United States, be. on a very considerably reduced scale. There is much in President Hoover’s Note to support this view. His attitude is far more rational than previously. Mall Street has exhibited greater confidence than has been evident for many weeks, and has thus helped to strengthen the sentiment. On this side the markets seem to have arrived at the stage at which it is considered the world situation cannot possibly become worse and may easily become better.” Problems of Industry. Interesting and instructive comments on the problems facing industry have been made by Sir Harry McGowan, chairman of Imnerlal Chemical Industries. He said that apart from world difficulties British industry had its own special problem. “Why has our share of world trade shrunk so much since the war?” he asked. He thought that the loss of British competitive power was largely due to our not keeping pace with the progress made elsewhere in industrial organisation. Nowadays conditions were so favourable that the British industrial development of the nineteenth century had altered. Knowledge now knew no international boundaries. Great Britain faced a circle of competing countries, many of them mechanically and mentally as highly equipped as our own. We could not afford to let the organisation of fntlustry be outdistanced by other countries. When the present depression passed we would have to look forward to a long period of years with some diminution of the volume of International trade in manufactured goods. The greatest effect of such contraction would fall on the United Kingdom, where the greatest readjustment would have to be made. Boom in Retail Trade. In view of Sir Harry McGowan’s remarks it is consoling to learn that one section of trade is enjoying a real boom. This is the retail sectionAccording to the “Dally Express, Christmas, 1932, will be the greatest, of all British buying festivals in history and the cheapest. Shopkeepers are jubilant, for business is being done on a .scale they hardly thought possible a few months ago. A quarter of a million people passed in and out of one great London store yesterday. There is the cheering reflection that most, of the money spent will remain in this country. The toy trade generally has been captured from the foreigner. British glass, china, furniture, and leather goods all hold the field.

One of the most significant points is the steady rise in the sale of evening frocks. Returns from this department of one large store last week are reported to be 25 per cent, better than 1931. This inevitably means new shoes, stockings, gloves, bags, and a hundred and one items of the revived social activity which is a barometer of the country’s wealth.