FIRST AGAIN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 107, 19 April 1933, Page 8

FIRST AGAIN

BRITISH EXPORTS. ECONOMIC POSITION. Auckland, April 18. Favourable comment on conditions in England generally were made by Mr. W. H. Zander, of Wellington, who returned to Auckland by the Niagara after a tour of Englaud, tho Continent, and Canada. “There is not the slightest doubt that England is definitely picking up,” he said. “There is an optimistic tone everywhere. It has for a considerable peiiod been apparent that Great Britain is slowly but surely tecovcring something of the economic standing which she lost during tho war. After having slipped back to third exporting country, England has regained first position.” Mr. Zander said that the most striking indication of England’s recovery was the pronouncement made by the Rt, Hon. Neville Chamberlain, British Chancellor of the Exchequer. It must have been a peculiar satisfaction to Mr. Chamberlain to be able to announce that Great Britain had regained first position as an exporting country. Mr. Chamberlain appraised the work of the National Government in the past twelve months, and said British credit was so fully restored that the Government was almost embarrassed by tho amount of foreign money brought to London by people who felt it to be a safer place than those countries from whence it came. NEW FACTORIES. “Perhaps the most encouraging concrete instance of this returning prosperity presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer was the announcement that since the National Government came into office more than two hundred new factories had been established in England with foreign capital, and that it had had invitations from twenty foreign countries to enter into new commercial treaties —a circumstance unprecedented in the days of Free Trade, when there was nothing to offer in return. That the recovery of Great Britain will ultimately be followed by tho recovery of other parts of the Empire is a natural corollary.” DISTRESS ON CONTINENT. In striking contrast to the improvements in Great Britain, Mr. Zander described conditions on tho Continent as “terrible.” “In Vienna, poverty hits you in the face,” he said. “People are begging in the streets, and there are many pitiful cases.” Mr. Zander left Germany on the eve of tho elections. The people did not know what was going to happen. They feared serious rioting, but their fears were unfounded. The general impression was that Germany hope!! Hitler would get a majority provided there was a fair proportion of Nationalists in tho Government. Germany was looking to Hitler for big things. Where, in some cases, manufacturers had to go to Germany and other Continental countries for their raw materials, they were now able to go to England, said Mr. Zander. A number of Continental factories had opened branches in England aud were employing British labour, so that England was now turning out a first-class product in many lines. It. was the duty of the Dominions to assist the Mother Country.