TRADE AND INDUSTRY IN 1915

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2693, 12 February 1916, Page 13

TRADE AND INDUSTRY IN 1915

PREPARATION FOR ACTION AFTER THE AVAR. The aniwjal trade review issued with the "Cliamfcer of Commerce Journal" (Loudon), in dealing with the future, remarks that everything naturally depends upon the termination cf the war end the conditions of peace, as to which lie would be a bold man who ventured to prophesy. One thing at least is certain, and that is that victory must sooner or later rest' with the Entente Powers. A well-known American writer recently pointed out that, even assuming for a moment that Germany was everywhere successful on land, she would still bo beaten, because no German vessel could sail the seas and not one ton of German merchandise could bo transported across the ocean without the consent of the British and Allied Fleets. England has worked day and night to furnish her Allies witii much-needed equipment and supplies of all kinds, while the part she lias played in connection with finance—and it lias been said that the /'silver bullet" will ,entl the war—will probably surprise many people when the full history of the war comes to be written. At the present. moment it is, of course, obvious that our manufacturers, with depleted staffs, are so fully occupied with urgent war requirements that, in many cases, they are absolutely precluded from, accepting orders in the ordinary course of trade, but it is possible that in this respect matters, may become a little easier in the near future. It is, therefore, a matter of vital necessity that immediate consideration should be given to the future of trade and industry when peace conditions once more obtain, and it is gratifying to learn that steps are being taken by qualified commercial bodies to arrive at a prompt decision on the practical issues which will then be raised, while_ evidence is not wanting that the British Government is alive to the need for-early action in certain dif rections. From a political point of "view it is probable that one result of the war will be to relegate certain party shibboleths to the .limbo of the past, for among all sections of the people the feeling appears to be growing in intensity that never again shall our present unscrupulous enemies receive equal treatment with our relatives and friends in future coihmercial arrangements.