TRADE REVIEW

Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1932, Page 8

TRADE REVIEW

PROBLEMS FACING INDUSTRY. BOOM IN RETAIL TRADE. LONDON, December 10. The stock markets are little affected by tlu uncertainties regarding the war dehes arrangements, except in tile restriction of the volume c.f business. Giltedged securities have been marked up all round from the levels a fortnight ago. Australian stocks are particularly firm as a result of t..e reinvestment orders.

The attitude of the Stock Exchange regarding the<war debts positon is well described by; the “Statist” as follows: —“The belief has' persisted, that though tlie December payment will duly be met in one form or-another, future payments will, by agreement with the United States, be on a very considerably reduced scale. There is much in President Hoover’s note to support this view. His attitude is far more rational than previously. Wall Street his exhibited greater confidence than has been evident for many weeks. Thus it lies helped to strengthen the sentiment on this side that the markets seem to have arrived at a stage at which it is considered that the world situation cannot possibly become worse. It may easily become better.”

BRITAIN’S INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM

Interesting and instructive comments on the problems facing industry were made by .Sir Harry McGowan, chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries. He said that apart from world difficulties, British industry had had its own special problem. "Why.-had our share of world trad? shrunk so much since the war? He though that tlie loss of British competitive ■ power was largely due to our not keeping pace with progress elsewhere in industrial organisation. Nowadays con litmus wre so favourable that the British industrial development of the Nineteenth Century had. altered.. Knowledge now knew no international boundaries. Great Britain faced a circle of competing countries, many mechanically and mentally as lrgbly equipped as. our own. AVe could not afford to let the organisation, of . industry be outdistanced by other countries..

When tlie present depression passed we should have to look forward to. a Fug period of.years of seme diminution in the volume of international trade in manufactured goods. The greeto- t effect of .- such contraction would fall on..the "United Kingdom, where the greatest readjustment would have to be made. GOOD BUYING CHRISTMAS EXPECTED.

In view of Sir Harry McGowan’s remarks it is consoling to learn that one section of trade is enjoying a- ral boom. This is the retail;.section. • According to the “Daily Express,” Christmas, 1932; will be the greatest all-British buying festival in history, and :the vendors of .cheap goods are jubilant.,/.Business is being done on a scale- they hardly thought possible a few months ago. A quarter of a million people passed in and out of one great London store yesterday, and there- was the cheering reflection thatmost, of the money will remain in this country. The toy trade generally has been ,captnred from the foreigners, and British glass, china, furniture, and leather goods all hold the Held. One of the most significant points is the steady rise in the scale of evening frocks.. Fycm its returns, in this deartmeut one large store last week reported a 25 per cent improvement over 1931. This inevitably means the sale of new s|ioes. stockings,-gloves, hags, and a hundred and one items of revived social activity,. which is a barometer- to the country’s wealth.