REMARKABLE RECOVERY IN TRADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 302, 22 December 1939, Page 9

REMARKABLE RECOVERY IN TRADE

BRITISH FIGURES CONFOUND BLOCKADE CLAIM IMPORTS HIGHEST FOR MONTHS [ British Official Wireless ] RUGBY, Dec. 20. The remarkable recovery in Briexport trade revealed in the Board of Trade figures is greeted with satisfaction by the Press, which considers the figures against the German claim to have blockaded the British Isles. Statistic-.' show that imports arrived in volume for which more sterling was spent than in any month since January, 1938, and that exports went out more free':- after a hold-up during the first two months of the war. Regarding imports increases were shown in the value of grain and flour, meat and dairy produce, iron and st n el. base metals and rubber. Most substantial increases arc recorded in cocoa, much of which was resold abroad; in raw cotton, the value of which was three times that of November, 1938; in iron and steel and in oils, fats and resins. Tobacco imports were sharply cut down and [ess timber was taken. Among exports the most conspicuous expansion has been in cotton earns and manufactures and woollen ?oods, cocoa, coal and chemicals, the value of which were all higher than n November last year. Compared with October more iron md steels products, machinery and vehicles were shipped abroad. In commenting on the fact that imports show an improvement with respect to the preceding month and also ndicate an 8 per cent, rise in im)orts compared with November, 1938, :he newspapers note that the vatemries in which the principal increases •ccurred. cotton, non-ferrous ores and crap, od seed and oil, comprise the commodities in which Germany is lotoriously deficient. iof give correct figures, but he said hey were sufficiently large to enable he organisation of several squadrons or a start. Machines for the Polish squadrons vould he British in Britain and Tench in France.