BRIGHTER TONE

Southland Times, Issue 21834, 11 October 1932, Page 7

BRIGHTER TONE

CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN. REVIEW BY MR BALDWIN. (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, October 8. Mr Stanley Baldwin, speaking at the Conservative Conference, said: “Although the conditions are not without anxiety, the general financial position has improved beyond all belief. We enjoy once again more cheap money, we have effected a wonderful conversion, and we no longer suffer any anxiety about our currency. The industrial position is less satisfactory, but there are signs of hope. There are very few groups of the large industries to-day that are yet in a better position, but there is a more hopeful tone generally. . .. “Of the large industries in which there is a more hopeful tone we may take the great textile industries of cotton, wool and silk. In the first eight months of this year the increase in the importation of raw cotton, which is the most reliable barometer of the cotton trade, over last year has been 24 per cent., while in the woollen trade the goods dealt with by Bradford conditioning houses have increased in the same period by 18 per cent, and the importation of raw silk by 40 per cent. In the cotton trade there has also been an increase in the export of cotton piece goods by 30 per cent. In the China market the export from Britain has more than doubled in that period, and in the Indian market it has increased 36 per cent. The continuing tendency of foreign firms to set up factories in Britain shows confidence in our future and a recognition of our competitive position.”