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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144778, 7 September 1915, Page 2

Mr. Balfour’s letter to a correspondent on the Gorman Navy is another welcome contribution to the enlightenment of the Empire and of neutrals. It is a truly British production, giving the enemy his due with absolute fairness. Mr. Balfour practically tells us that the submarine campaign has been a dismal failure from the point of view of an attack on British commerce. In spite of the grievous loss of ships the British mercantile marine is larger than it was at the beginning of the war. Some recently published figures as to British trade serve, to push tho lesson homo even more emphatically. It was obvious that, with all importe to Germany and Austria cut off and those to Franco and Russia checked by the war, the British export trade must receive a severe shock. This would have happened in any case, but, with between two and three million men serving in the army and two millions engaged in the production of munitions, the manufacture of goods for export was hound to diminish enormously. Further, large numbers of ships have been retained by the Government for transport and other purposes, making it difficult to remove goods to oversea markets. In face of all these restricting factors it is not surprising that exports hare diminished; the surprising fact is that they have diminished so little. In August, 1914, exports dropped 45 per cent, on the figures for August, 1913, and the average decline for the six months August-January was 41 per cent. The submarine campaign was foniially declared on February 18, and that month saw the fall reduced to 36.5 per cent., and the falls for’ the next three months were: March, 32.2; April, 19.4; May, 20 per cent. It will thus be seen that exports are rapidly tending to become normal. The case of imports is oven more surprising. In August, 1914, there was a fall 6f 24.3 per cent., and in October, it amounted to, 28.1 per cent. By the beginning of the year the fall had ceased' and a steady improvement set it until, by the month of May, the imports were actually 21.2 per cent, greater than in the corresponding month of 1914. The rise in prices explains this increase to a certain extent, but the fact remains that, though at war with the second; naval Power of the world, Britain is actually importing more goods than in a time of profound peace. Even the export figures would be much larger but for the fact that they do not include goods taken from British Government stores or goods bought by the Government and shipped on Government vessels. In spite of this some hopelessly ignorant people still ask when the British navy is going to get to work.