The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1917. HOW INDUSTRY SUFFERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 21, 18 August 1917, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1917. HOW INDUSTRY SUFFERS.

A curious side-light is thrown on tho great upsetting of normal conditions by the prolongation of tho war, in tho report that there is now shortage of one million dwelling houses in Britain. While estimating that this a probably overdrawn statement a commentator on the report considers that the tact, however, that the Local Government Board admits that half a million new tenements are required shows how 1 seriously building has fallen into arrears. In Glasgow alone it is officially reported that immediate need exists for housing accommodation for one hundred thousand workers, and some authorities estimate that the total supply of now houses now urgently required will cost no less than 000,000 "to build. That ’s ai.lov mg an average of £250 per house. Unforunately there are hundreds of thousands of men who will not he able to set up now homes who would otherwise require houses after the war. Some because they have been killed, and some because they will not he able to undertake the responsihilty of raising families on account of infirmity. There will also he a vast number ol widows to provide with cheap houses, as well as partially disabled men with families. But all this will not r< pmsent more than a fraction of ’he

works that will he necessary to nnko rip for the diversion of industry from its ordinary channels, not to speak of the actual destruction caus 'd hy Ihe war. All these things ought to he remembered against the war-makei • in the clay of reckoning.

JAPAN AND TifE WAR.

Nothing has boon more striking as regards the financed developments in connection with the war than the extent to which the economic posiciu.i of Japan has steadily strengthened during the past two and a half years, says the Mercantile Gazette. It is not as though Japan had not herself taken a very active part in the con- 1 Hint, and her own war expenditure must have been quite considerable. As against that fact, however, Japan has been called upon to supply the )c----quirements in the matter of war materials, etc., of many of the Allies to an extent which has given her quite a control over many of the leading exchanges. As a result of this prosperity not only lias Japan been able to redeem a vast amount of foreign debt during the period of the Avar, 1 hut in addition to making some important loans to Russia she has nlso ( even made substantial advances to Great Britain. Not that Great Britain hitherto has been requiring money in Japan in the shape of yen, hot by reason of America’s indebtedness to our Far Eastern Ally Japan has been able to give, us the equivalent ot sterling in dollars in Now \ork at a time when a supply of such dollars lias been a first essential in our financial requirements.