Slump in Burma's Trade

Northern Advocate, 30 October 1948, Page 5

Slump in Burma's Trade

LONDON, Fri. (Noon)—Burmese almost ignore such items as the prosofficials of the Left-Wing Government pects of national bankruptcy and slumping trade, says the Daily Telegraph’s Calcutta correspondent in a review of the Burma situation. British wives and children of employees at Mawchi mines, he adds, are being evacuated from Rangoon this week by sea. - '

Old-established British firms have been overwhelmed by costs of maintaining staffs in idleness. The dearth of shipping in Rangoon Harbour tells its own story. Burma’s foreign trade is falling, not only because of conditions of the country, riven by five political groups all warring on the Rangoon Government, but because the Government no longer has sufficient sterling credit for the normal foreign trade requirements of her nationals.

British business interests, with £IOO,000,Ouu sunk in the country, are in the dark about what is the official policy towards foreign capital and technical skill.