BRITAIN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 January 1926, Page 3

BRITAIN.

LOSS OF MARKETS. TEMPORARY DTSABTLTTIES. Britain is a much maligned country, and she does not deserve it. People all over the world are saying that l she has fallen, but Britain has not fallen —she i,s crouching for a spring., The foregoing statement sums up the views of Mr P. ,T. Pvbus. managing director of the English Electric Co., Ltd., chairman of the. Power and Traction Finance Co., Ltd., and director of the Times Publishing Co., Ltd., one of the 300 visiting tourists who recently visited New Zealand by tlie Carinthia. Air Pybus,. who is a Commander of the British Empire and a member of the institute of Electrical Engineers, has held; many, high and responsible positions, lie is a member of the Unemployed ’Grants Committee, of the Advisory Committee of Oversea Trade, of the Committee on Industry and Trade set up bv tlie Labour Government, and a member of the Delegacy, University of London, King’s College. He is a well-known journalist on social and Labour subjects. During the Great War he worked prominently with Mr Lloyd George, especially in releasing men for the front bydrafting women to the factories. With all this experience and the tremendous knowledge of English social and industrial conditions it has gained him, Mr Pybus is well-fitted to speak of England’s position in the world at the moment. He has watched the machinery and tended much of it for many critical years.

POSITION NOT SO DESPERATE. “One of the most, regrettable things I have observed wherever we have gone—in New Zealand, in the United States, or in Canada —is a belief that Britain has staggered 1o her knees and will not rise, again. How on earth this idea, spread I do not know, for there is nothing to support it. People say, ‘Look at your unemployment. A country with one and a quarter million people out of work must be in a bad way. They talk without understanding what thev talk about, Britain always had about 500,000 unemployed before the war—in which she carried an enormous burden —but we never heard about them, because they were not registered. Now the figures are followed closely, and everyone is on the tiptoe of expectancy to know the latest fluctuation. They never realise that to-day’s unemployment, despite the chaos and disruption of the Great War, is* only 000,000 or 700,000 more than that of I lie days before; .1914.

“Another tiling which ninny people j do not observe is that a vast propov- j lion of Die unemployed! are unskilled workers. Strange as' it may seem, j there are more engineers engaged to-; day in England Ilian in the days prior i to the war. I have a theory that the] people are unemployed because the re- i volution which was commenced with) Cartwright’s and Stevenson’s inven- j tions a century ago has not yet finished. Manual workers, especially the unskilled, are being displaced; it is an j age of machinery. I i CROUCHING FOR A SPRING. j “Britain has tost, many of the markets which, before the, war, were a source of woalMi to her. Like the man) who makes his coat last, longer than) its appearance warrants, these conn- ; tries are holding out, hoping always for better times. Often they come on ) to our markets, but their coinage is! «o depreciated that we cannot do much ) for them or for ourselves. Tn fact. [ the currency of these nations has j fallen so heavily that it often costs' them three times as much to purchase an article as in the days before the war. Needless to say. this somewhat, damps their ardour. T would like to remove the idea that Britain is staggering hopelessly under the great blow she suffered. Rather, in the words of Micawber, T would say ’she is crouching for her spring.’ “If we examine Ihe position carefully we will find that many of the disabilities she suffers are merely temporary. Certainly she has Inst trade in coal, steel and shipbuilding. But consider things carefully, and von will be able to reduce the whole trouble to a single dominator —Britain's loss of coal contracts. Germany wanted capital. She had a coal reserve. She sold her coal to make capital, but soon she will have exhausted those supplies, and will he faced with Die position either of relinquishing the trade she, has gained temporarily or o+ - continuing to sell at a loss. This she will not do. The effect of the lose, of contracts in Britain lias been to depress the steel and. consequently the shipbuilding industries, for the home price, of coal has had to be raised-. A second factor which has contributed to the coal trouble is the ever-increasing use of oil in steamships. Dime we sent Die best Welsh coal as far afield as .Greece. “The development of hydro power I on Die Continent has had Die same reaction. The illness is not alone Britain's; every nation in Kurope is suffering. ” “ Don’t v.m think " asked the press“that the suggestion of your colleague. Major Aster that' Britain must (in,! a.solid am for her d illieiill ics wit h in the Km |d re is the n,esl log-on and rendv way out of all this trouble. < < Vmi mean Kmiere iireterence. said Mr ID bus. “Yes 1 agree with you. That'is a way that must be developed.”