Evening star., 1933-12-31
Britain Is Cautiously
Cheerful at New Year
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, December 30.-While the
new year is overshadowed by the world
sitration, there is one aspect Of it
which, from the British point Of view,
offers ground for cautious cheerfulness.
The year which has reached its close
has witnessed a slow but marked i'm
provement in the internal position Of
the country. Things are on the mend
not sensationally but steadily and
convincingly. A new feeling is abroad
new hope is in the air There is a
growing confidence that the country has
Scraped the bottom Of its sea OF mis-
fortune and that the returning tide is
lifting it clear
Many weighty facts unite to confirm
and enforce this view There is, first
Of all. the constant evidence CT i'm
proved trade, reflected in the remark
able decline in unemployment When
the year, began the unemployed num-
bered nearly 100000 The year closed
with the figure not far above the q
100000 level This represents not only
a substantial improvement in trade and
a great increase in the spending power
of the public. but also an important
diminution in the burden of the dole
Further, the revenue returns up to
date are surprisingly gratifying and
Neville Chamberlain. chancellor of the
excheQuer, anticipates not only that the
budget will be balanced, but that there
will be substantial surplus. There are
high hopes for some measure of relief
for the burdened taxpayer, whose as
sessments reach in the case of the rich
to as much as half the total net in
come and in no case fall below a
quarter.
Apart from these pointers of pros
perity. there is the direct evidence Of
the trade returns. During the whole
nine months of the present financial
year there has been an uninterrupted
upward movement in exports, while,
with concurrent tendency to diminish
ing imports. the balance of national
trade is approaching an equilibrium.
That the new tariff policy Of the gOv-
ernment is in some degree responsible
for this cannot be denied. and the fact
that there is as yet no substantial in
crease in the cost Of living seems to
discredit the free trade argument, at
all events for the time being. But no
one doubts that In the end the cost of
living will rise, with consequent fall
in real wages and formidable
strengthening Of the labor forces at the
next election.
But for the moment the govern
ment's claim that it has delivered the
goods" In the home sphere, If not the
foreign sphere, is unanswerable. Trade
is better. unemployment is decreasing
and the financial position of the coun-
try has witnessed a quite surprising
transformation.
X
There are, however, many causes for
diSquiet. Two at least of the great
staple industries are still in the deep
est depths of depression and their
plight is attributed to foreign action.
against which the government is being
urged to take defensive measures. One
is the great cotton industry of Lam
cashire, which is still stricken by the
foreign competition that has arisen
since the war, but mainly by the devas-
tating rivalry of Japan, not merely in
the Far East. but in the British COL
onies and foreign markets Traders of
all sorts are panic-stricken at the IAN
tastically low prices at which japanese
goods are thrown on the market
prices so microscopic as to leave COM
petition out of the question and tariffs,
however high, unavailing.
But it is the cotton trade which feels
the blizzard most shatteringly. Low
wages. low standard of living in ia
pan and the deprecated ven account
for some Of the difference, but not all.
Better organization, state backing of
industry and absence of labor troubles
are even more serious factors-seriouS
because more fundamental and per-
manent Parliament rings with appeals
to the government to find some reply
that will give Lancashire a fighting
chance, but so far the problem seems
insoluble.
The case Of shipping is as desperate
in other ways. The supremacy of the
British mercantile marine is challenged
from all quarters by the system Of
state subsidies which makes normal
commercial competition practically i'm
of the Board of Trade. states that for
eign state subsidies reach the annual
total of f30, 1000, 900, of which the United
States share Is f17,000,000. It Is OBJ
Nous that ordinary commercial ship
ping, conducted on an economic basis
cannot live against State-aided COM
petition which meets its deficiencies out
of taxation, and inasmuch as Britain
is dependent for its food on overseas
sources 1t is urged that the mercantile
marine must be maintained at all costs.
The government has been unwilling
~ induced to back the building Of the
giant Cunarder. which Is designed to