SHARP DECLINE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 15 June 1926, Page 5

SHARP DECLINE

IN BRITISH TRADE A MATTER FOR CONCERN TO BRITISH DOMINIONS 'Ry Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian, & N.Z. Cable Association.) MELBOURNE, This Day. Referring to the sharp decline in British trade this year, the total diminution of which to the end of May compared with the same period last year reached .£118,000,000 Mr Bruce says:—“The position is calculated to cause concern to British communities in other parts of the world, especially since they realise the extent to which their own economic future is hound up with that of Britain. I can only hope for a corresponding realisation in Great Britain of the extent to which, her future trading prosperity is hound up with her oversea dominions. J am inclined to think the question of the development of Empire trade is too commonly regarded in Britain as a matter which affects the overseas Empire primarily and Britain herself only secondarily; hut 1 cannot emphasise too strongly the point that this is a matter in which interests are reciprocated. No one can tell whether the decline in Britain’s foreign trade is temporarily or partly permanent, hut of one thing there is no doubt —that Empire trade forms a steadily increasing proportion of the total oversea trade of the United Kingdom."