TRADE IN BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1935, Page 6

TRADE IN BRITAIN.

Any persons in New Zealand who underrate the value of public confidence in financial affairs might read with profit the reports from London of trade in Great Britain during the past two weeks. There have been rumours of a political crisis, of a general election within a few weeks, and even of a trading scandal in which a former Minister of tire Crown was involved. Nervousness in the investment market followed almost as a matter of course, and before many days industrial stocks were depressed in sympathy. Fortunately the plain statements of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, appear to have allayed anxiety and trade is recovering. Mr. Chamberlain has always refused to be stampeded into rush action. An ardent Protectionist, he has been content to see that fiscal system gradually extended, and when Mr. Lloyd George’s recent campaign seemed to reflect discredit upon the Government’s efforts for the relief of unemployment it was the Chancellor who made it clear that there was no need to disrupt the Cabinet in order to include Mr. Lloyd George, that the employment position was improving, and that if political complications were avoided a further improvement in trade, and therefore in employment, would ensue. There has been much loose talk among Labour politicians in the Dominion about a better use of the country’s credit. England’s experience in the past fortnight should show once more, however, that credit is a sensitive plant and does not always respond as desired to the efforts of amateur cultivators.