INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22352, 28 August 1934, Page 7

INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

IMPROVEMENT IN BRITAIN RETURNS FOR JUNE QUARTER (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 25. During . the June quarter, industrial activity in Britain was 1 per cent, tetter than in the corresponding quarter of the past year. This figure is arrived at from particulars gathered from various sources by the Board, of Trade, whose standard is an index .number based on the quarter average of 1924, which is ■taken as being 100. The .general index for the June quarter of this year is 110.3, and is the highest recorded since the March quarter of 1930. The index for manufacturing • industries alone (11,8.4) is the highest since this series of index numbers was first compiled; in 1927. In six of the eight groups of industries for which the figures are available, produce was greater than the average for the base year 1924. Exceptions were mines and quarries and text Mes. Comparing the :group increases for the June quarter with those of a year earlier, considerable increases were recorded in iron and steel (32.9 per cent.), and for engineering and shipbuilding (17.9 per centj. i MISSION TO MANCHUKUO (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 25 The Federation of British Industries mission, consisting of Lord Barnby (chairman), Sir Charles Seligman, and Messrs Guy Lock and Julian Piggott, who arc going to .Manchukuo to study trade conditions, there, left England today? ; o'" ’ ;V.;; 0v ' Lord Barnby, referring in a letter to the press to certain opinions about the political relations of Britain and Japan that he is supposed to have expressed in an interview with the London correspondent of a Japanese paper, says some misunderstanding must have arisen, and emphasises that the mission he is leading is not concerned with political questions, which are entirely outside its scope. He adds that he is personally not qualified to express an opinion on political questions affecting Britain’s relations with other countries. “The mission,” he says, “ is going to the Far East in an entirely , unofficial capacity for business purposes, and also in the hope of making friendly contact with the business communities of the respective countries.”