Norwich bulletin., 1920-03-20
HOW BELGIUM IS COMING BACK

der cultivation. According to MT. | Blount not more than one per cent. Of | her total area came under actual de- vastation from trench warfare, and a | recent governmental appropriation of 5u ,00G000 francs has given a great impetus to the restoration of evan this comparatively small district near the
 Hast ditch of the Yser.
 With agriculture, coal and steel ranks the taytile industry of Belgium. Among the important statistics not cd by MT. BIount, we find that the cotton mills have attained 75 per cent. | of their pre-war capacity. Wages have been increased 150 per cent. |, About 90 per cent. Of the workmen I are unionized and a spirit of satis- l faction seems to prevail among them. | M11ls are booked tve4 h,head with
 orders, including shipments to Hol- land, England, France and South
 America-45 per cent. of Belgiums s ! textiles were exported before the wal" !" The, flax spinning and weaving mills of Flanders have resumed about so y per cent, the woolen mills about 75 i per cent.
 Zinc and window glass. both very profitable industries, gave likewise come back in very gratifying ratios.
 and behind all of Belgium's domestic
 strength ranges the great potential wealth of her holdings in the Congo. The economic future of this terri
 toryt 80 times as large as Belgium
 proper, is so great according to MT
 Eaount, 'ias to make all speculStion
 seem paltry."
 Few countries have had less diff
 culty than Be-glum in adjusting their postwar Iabor problems, first, ex-
 plains MT. Blount. because the Bel
 gian laborer did not receive the high
 wages which intuition workers ob-
 tained in other allied countries during
 fAlr years ,and the passing Of the war has meant to him an Increase 1T wages rather than a threatened re-
 ducLion to a scale in keeping with tht new conditions, Second. 70 the higf cost or living has not affected the la } borer in Belgium in the same degree
 as in other counties. owing to hi;
 natural thrift and. to the renarkabl' organization Of Belgian co-operativ' societies."
 :. The net result of Belgiums pre-. { war conservatism. and Of her rapid :, recovery since the armistice, is tS
 vorable position, which Mir. Bloun T explains in detail, continuing: "Ol 3 June "A, 1919, the council of five sign : ed an agreement giving formal ap : proval to priority for Belgium to tn : amount of 2,500 ,009.000 gold franc l ! (S4S2, ,000, ,O0o) out of the reparation t, s be paid by Germany. Of this it i :, ] understood that Belgium will us f S227, ,0O0,0O0 toward the repayment o = S252, ,000,O00 advanced to her by Grea k Britain, France and the United State Q since the armistice. - .- $ In her foreign trade, too, Belgium 1 t again making herself felt Her gen i. eral exports for the first ten month g of 1919 reached 47.6 per cent. of tn T pre-war value. In the first min q months she imported from the Unite t States alone an amount equivalent { g $37 for every inhabitant. She rank ,. fifth among the nations of the worl nj as a market for United States export e at the present time. unfortunately ,f comments Mir. Blount "the more N n sold to Belgium the less she could bu,
 as her exports to us were Less than s per cent of her purchases from U l. Belgian exchange kept falling unt -t Belgians were paying more than 1t n per cent. premium on goods bougl If from the United States. Inability -e relieve the Belgian exchange situatio > has recently obliged Belgians to linn n their purchases to the strict necess 70 ties unobtainable elsewhere and hs -i 1Oi CSd tliNifl' e Gfiiisal lltSii Wl1f lO Bu T. from Germany those products whic ar our manufacturers could not sell er them on lone tern credit" - s, Tn conclusion, Mir. Blount finds tn
 ''to buy new machinery as well US "a le materials. Belgium needs credit 2" sufficiently long terms to permit h E. industries to bring mp the volume to exports, and thereby reduce the Ill CT favorable trade balance which nc y. initiates against her outside pu a. ehases"