CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19177, 17 November 1925, Page 12

CRISIS IN BRITAIN.

» trough of depression." AN ADVERSE TRADE BALANCE. THE PROBLEM OF COAL. " England is now engaged in what is almost a death, straggle, endeavouring to get herself oat of the trough o£ depression into which she has sunk since the armistice," said Mr. Edmund S. Pattl, the managing director of Schweppes, Ltd., in Australia, who returned to- Sydney a few days ago, after an extended visit to Europe. "The seriousness of the position and the possible decline of England's greatness, are not now matters of whispered fears. The'facts are seriously discussed in newspaper articles by men 0! the calibre of Mr. J. L. Garvin. " The facts themselves are quite simple," continued Mr. Paul. "Britain's greatness in the past has depended on her foreign trade. Owing to her absorption in manufacturing, she provides only one-fifth of her vital necessities in the shape of food. Agriculture has been sacrificed to industry. Before the war, home exports were some £160,000,000 less than foreign imports. They are now _ some £350,000.000 less, and the balance is going steadily against Britain. She cannonow even build ships for her own as* at an economical price. _ _ " Seven vears after the armistice Britain finds herssll with a great army of unemployed, with a burden of taxation unparalleled in the world, and with a difference between exports and imports of £350,C00,000, and daring that time she has spent nearlv £300,000,000 on keeping the idle fed and the discontented from mutiny. What the. future holds no one can tell- A pessimistic view show: Diminution of food supplies, a much higher cost of living, and eventual starvation. " Coal is, of course, the key to the position, 1 ' said Mr. PaoL 'A fifth ox Britain's foreign coal trade has already gone because her coal is too dear to compete with coal from other countries. The Baldwin Ministry has apparently set its face against nationalisation of the mines, but in answer to a threat ot a general strike, the Prime Minister granted the mining industry a subsidy of £10,000,G00, while a Royal Commission is inquiring into conditions that sire said to be well known to everybody. ' "This is only a temporary peace, however, for when the period of the subsidy Path early next year the crisis will crime again probably more acutely than before. The cardinal facts that publicists are trying to make clear every day are that the cost of production, both of food and other commodities, is too high,, be cause wages, when compared with the low wages of other countries, are too high, and output is too small. "A visit to Britain is depressing just now. By contrast, conditions on the Continent are happy. 'ln France, where taxation is about a third of what it : . is in England, there are practically no unemployed, and living for the French is comp.irativelv comfortable. In the Austrian Tyrol and in Switzerland the people who appeared to have the most money, to spend in the hotels were Germans. They were to he found in their thousands everywhere on the Continent except in France."

Mr. Harry Boast, of Perth, who has jasi returned from a seven months' visit to Europe, said in an interview that trade conditions in England were bad. The chief problem with which people were confronted was that arising oat of ions hoars worked and small wages paid on the Continent. These: factors were rapidly killing the British export trade, and an all-round businessj depression naturally resulted, the export trade being the "backbone of British industry.