GAINING GROUND

Southland Times, Issue 22146, 14 October 1933, Page 5

GAINING GROUND

BRITAIN’S POSITION NATIONAL FINANCES SOUND TRADE IMPROVING (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, October 12. The President of the Board of Trade, Mr Walter Runciman, said that Britain was in the happy position of regaining bit by bit her old position of the great major trader of the world. A comparison of the figures for the first half of the past three years showed in a vast majority of cases that the United Kingdom’s share of imports into foreign countries had either been steady or had increased, and in some cases the increases had been very large. By contrast with the summer of . 1931 Britain had now attained a position of being the strongest financial country in the world with the best credit. She had been able to place her national finances upon a foundation almost as secure as before the war. The Government was now going to do what it could for the British textile industry, and after that it should turn its attention to steel. Although there was now a long list of import duties in force in Britain, the cost of living remained very much where it was in 1931—an achievement without parallel in the history of modern industrial countries. The Board of Trade return for September compared with the corresponding period last year shows that the imports were .£57,803,000 and the exports £32,226,000. The prinicpal increases were:

Imports. £ Grain and flour 413,000 Meat 560,000 Wood and timber 1,876,000 Raw cotton 734,000 Hides and skins 563,000 Exports. Coal 421,000 Raw wool Iron and steel and manu289,000 factures thereof Non-ferrous metals and 600,000 manufactures 941,000 Machinery Woollen and worsted 424,000 yarns 537,000 Other textile manufactures 434,000 Chemicals The principal decrease was: 419,000 imports. Food and drink £1,978,000