IMPORTS CUT URGED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 88, 8 January 1935, Page 9

IMPORTS CUT URGED

Lord Rothermere Writes on British Trade

“DISQUIETING SYMPTOMS” By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, January 6. Lord Rothermere in an article in the “.Dispatch" says that the budgetary and trading figures for the expired portion of the financial year ending March 31, 1935, exhibit the same disquieting symptoms which were observed in 1927-28, and which led to the crisis of 1931. Expenditure was again mounting and the adverse trade balance grew at a rate of about, three millions monthly in 1934. “If the tendency persists, it may grow another three millions in 1935, which will lower the value of currency and increase the cost of living. Britain could live with only half the manufactured imports at present received,- which would decrease outgoings by £80,000,000 yearly, making us a creditor nation. The Government should immediately enforce a reduction in imports and prepare to counter the increasing Japanese competition, especially in textiles. It also should challenge Socialism and reinforce its Front Bench: otherwise it will lose the next election which would be fatal to constitutionalism.”