BRITAIN’S TRADE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 109, 1 February 1935, Page 11

BRITAIN’S TRADE

“Worst of Depression Put Behind Us” STATISTICAL EVIDENCE London, January 30. At the Westminster Bank meeting, Mr. Rupert Beckett, who presided, said: “The history of the past year demonstrates on the whole that the trade of the country has made a fair measure of progress, not altogether uniform. but sufficient to justify the claim that the wprst of the depression has been put behind us, and. we have good reason for maintaining confidence. Statistical evidence points convincingly to an improvement of British industry and trade in the past 12 months. The activity throughout the year, as measured by the index of industrial production, was at levels appreciably higher than 1933, which had a better record than 1932. Employment in 1934 was approximately the same as in 1929, much higher than in any other year since the war. “The past year has shown how inadequate is increased domestic trade beyond a certain point to effect a really drastic reduction in the formidable total of unemployed. We are forced therefore to look co export trade, by which alone can be preserved the structure we have reared. There is no sign of any relaxation in the strangling grip of restrictions in all their varying forms of taiiffs, quotas, import licenses and the like." He referred to barter agreements and exchange restrictions as formidable obstacles which continued to exercise a stranglehold, upon export trade. IMPROVED PROSPECTS Jarrow “Special Area” WORKS TO BE REOPENED (British Official Wireless.) (Received. January 31, 5.5 p.m.) Rugby, January 30. Improved prospects are offered to Jarrow, which is the centre of the Tyneside “special area,” where distress .and unemployment have been particularly bad, by plans for the reopening of Palmers’ large iron and steel works there.

It is proposed to open Palmers' Jarrow plant on the basis of 100,000 tons of steel ingots per annum. This represents only 5J per cent, of the steel ingot production for 1934 in that area, but it will include a more diversified range of products. '