FRENCH TRADE, AND BRITISH.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1929, Page 7

FRENCH TRADE, AND BRITISH.

“For the first time,” says the “Scotsmen,” “France has this year surpassed our output of steel, which was formerly three times as great as hers; her production of pig-iron, which was only about one-fourth of that of Great Britain before the war, now exceeds ours; she has become the greatest iron ore country in Europe; she has potash resources far in excess of consumption; she lias doubled her output of tinplates; her electrical capacity has been more than trebled; her chemical industries and textile industries have greatly expanded; and, in food industries, leather working, rubber, pottery and porcelain, glass, and paper the same tale of prosperity is told. All this has oecn achieved although taxation has doubled—in Great Britain the increase has been fourfold—and although the standard of living of the workers—still appreciably lower than in this country —has been considerably improved. On the financial side the skilful manner in which M. Poincare brought about reform and stabilisation of the currency has avoided many of the worst effects of inflation. In conjunction with the financial has gone a commercial policy, which has carried through a wholesale revision of the classification of commodities and of the tariffs applicable to them, and lias concluded a number of commercial treaties on the most-favoured-nation basis, of whb*b that with Germany was the model.”