THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14. 1926. THE OUTLOOK IN BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19406, 14 August 1926, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14. 1926. THE OUTLOOK IN BRITAIN.

From timo to time extravagant statements are made about Britain's industrial and commercial plight. There has been ground for concern. There is some still. But things are not nearly so black as it has been some folk's morbid pleasure to paint them. A little while ago Sir Esme Howard, Britain's Ambassador in Washington, dolefully stated there that the time might come in the near future when the United Kingdom would bo unable to meet her financial obligations to the United States. He spoke for himself, without any official authorisation of any sort, and ho has had his answer. Mr. Ben Tillett, heading the British coalminers' delegation to America in quest of strike funds, has breathed in the same ears a story of the desperate straits of the miners' families, and said there is need of £1,000,000 a week. The answer to his plaint was waiting. These are instances of an incorrigible British habit. Always, when things go awry, somebody or other asserts, with solemnity befitting a profound and colossal discovery, that the country is going to the dogs. British ears are not deceived. They have heard the portentous pleasantry so often. Politicians in the wilderness of Opposition, business magnates presented with taxation debit-notes, trade union leaders surveying lists of unemployed—it is all the same. Let ever so slight a slump come, and almost every shopkeeper talks about putting up the shutters. He has no intention of doing so. It is just his way, as it was the way of his father before him. Ho has no sinking of heart He will come down to business to-morrow morning with a flower in his buttonhole. Even if he finds hi 3 premises damaged by fire or earthquake or flood, ho will put up a notice of " business as usual," though he punctuates the tack-hammer taps with imprecations at the ill luck that dogs him. Prepared for the worst, and talking loudly of it, in his heart of hearts he valiantly hopes for the best, and plans accordingly. What are the facts 1 They are given in detailed statements made by New Zealanders recently returned from Britain. There is still part of the war's evil aftermath to gather. The general strike had a dislocating effect upon industry and commerce. Unemployment survives all efforts to obliterate it. The miners' strike continues to check national recovery from hard times and may work further havoc. But, when all this is taken into account—as it ought to be—there remains incontrovertible, evidence of a trade revival. Unemployment has been reduced. It remains chiefly in luxury trades, hard hit by the war. There were 200,000 more people engaged in industries last December than at the end of the previous year. Savings bank deposits at credit show a continued upward tendency. This index, giving evidence of the welfare of the small depositor, points away from the pessimists' prophecy. In general finance, there has been a return to the gold standard, prematurely some would say, but with much, good result. Insurance, apart from marine risks, is flourishing. Banking is in a strong position. The United Kingdom is again lending to Europe and the Dominions. Two large German loans have been taken from under the very noses of American financiers, and were immediately oversubscribed, as were the recent League of Nations loans to Austria, Hungary, Greece and other nations, as well as Britain's share of the Dawes loan. A large number of tea, coffee and rubber companies have issued capital. That Lombard Street holds supremacy still over Wall Street as an international banking centre is evident from the Clearing House figures: those for 1925 were the highest on record. It cannot be shown that the general standard of living has unduly fallen, having regard to all the circumstances. There was last year a reduction of taxation amounting to £30,000,000. A review of the situation generally does not support the pessimists.

When full allowance is made for the difficulties that beset even normal times, the outlook for Britain must be seen in a more favourable light than that in which the grumblers view it. They but indulge a; propensity native to the national character and exercise a right whose assertion has become second nature. But a halt should be called to indulging the propensity on the neighbours' housetops. Britain is by no means, decadent when the balance between good and ill is struck fairly; and the suggestion that has been made in America, directly by Sir Esme Howard and indirectly by the miners' delegation, is quite preposterous. Re-exports and imports are steadily increasing, the imports being largely balanced by invisible exports in the way of insurance, shipping freights and external loans. There are signs that in many industries the tide is coming in. There is no probability that the terms of repayment of our war debt to America, incurred to

aid our Continental allies, will not be fully implemented. America, at all events, rates our promises higher than those made by other countries. In the instance of Italy's debt ! to her, she has been content to accept an arrangement for settlement on a basis' equivalent to only onefourteenth of what she is getting annually from Britain. If Britain's Continental debtors meet their obligations under arrangements recently negotiated, the payments to America will involve no serious burden ; and there is every prospect, despite what the pessimists say, that out of her own resources Britain will shortly find increasing means to pay her way. There is life in the Old Land yet.