COMMERCE AND THE WAR.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4627, 7 May 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

COMMERCE AND THE WAR.

MR. RUNCIMAN AND OUR AMAZING FINANCIAL STABILITY.

Sir. Rnnciman, President of tho Board of Trade, speaking last month at a luncheon of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, said that during the last, seven months there had been no feature of the troubles through which we had passed which had given more satisfaction to himself and his colleagues than the amazing stability of the British financial and commercial situation. It was a good thing for our Allies that we were a commercial people. It was no use having men without material, and if we had not made a contribution of material to our Allies w© should not have been doing our whole duty. That was appreciated abroad, especially in Germany. He had nothing to add to Lord Kitchener’s speech in the House of Lords, but h© did believe our manufacturers would adapt themselves to tho national needs. Only within the last few hours he had been through a list of several firms now making war material. The number was not in scores, it was in hundreds. (Cheers and shouts of “ Bravo!”) It might be possible in future for the Board of Trade to let constituent members of that association know what was required of them. Tlie Government had don© many things which had a strong Socialistic taint, but they wer© none the worse for that. In financial matters almost every step taken was a new precedent, and though he was a member of the same Government as th© Chancellor of the Exchequer he did not think they woul l complain of any of the precedents set by his right lion, friend. He did not believe manufacturers would allow anything to stand in the way of national interests, but that if an appeal were made to the business men or the country they would respond to it loyally and patriotically. Adverting to the question of tho wheat supply, he remarked that they had been urged to take on the supply through Clovcrhment channels. The Government opposed that because they believed that the merchants were far better able to collect (and distribute than any Government department. Th© same was equally true of other departments of the State, and Ministers had endeavoured to restrict rather than to extend the area of Government interference. (Hear, hear.)