Evening star., 1936-02-16
TRADE TONE GOOD
|NBR|TA|N DESPITE
FOREIGN OUTLOOK
Government Expected to
Spend 20 Millions a Week
for Defense Program.
Special Dispatch to TIE Star.

Special Dispatch to TIE Star.
NEW YORK, February 15.-Cables
and wireless dispatches to Business
Week give the following survey of
business abroad for the week ending
today:
LONDON-"The business tone is
good in Britain. but there is strong
undercurrent of fear this week over
the foreign outlook
The government is expecting to
spend S20,0OO,0O0 a week for arma-
mentS as soon as the building program
gets under way. A defense loan of
81 1,250 100000 is likely to be fioated
shortly to cover these new expendi-
lures.
Popularity of investment trust
shares has created q difficult situation
here. An enormous volume of invest
ment capital has gone into the trust
shares and the trusts are now bidding
against each other for stocks for their
portfolios. Stock exchange officials
are alarmed over what will happen
if there is another slump and the in
veStment trusts attempt to unload
100000 900 of securities suddenly.
The Stock Exchange Committee. in
its last report. said it CO Id not deal
with the situation and asked for regu-
lating legislation. Parliament is too
busy to provide the necessary legisla-
tion just now, but the Board of Trade
is drafting a bill which may be pre-
sented soon."
French Stocks Climb.
PARASITIC Bourse is quieter this
week. Fear of imitation is evident in
the continued demand for shares and
the steady weakness of bonds. Shares
of Forges ct Acieries du Nord ct de
lEst, one of the biggest French steel
companies, were quoted at 334 francs
on January 81. 1885; at 37l on May 81,
1895, and at 488 on February of this
year. This is typical of the gains
which most popular stocks have regis
tered.
The best-informed authorities in
Paris still believe that devaluation can
be avoided until after the general
election, but it is whispered among
the heads of the largest banks here
that officials of the Bank of France
have had telephone conversations with
Federal Reserve authorities in New
York explaining that If any financial
panic develops suddenly during the
election campaign the government will
not hesitate to take control of capital
exports.
This indicates that the French gov
ernment is prepared to place an en-
barge on all capital exports in an
emergency, intrusting the Bank of
France with the task of maintaining
the franc at its present gold parity
through purchases and sales of gold
and foreign currencies in way similar
to that practiced by the British and
American equalization funds"
Reich Watches Pacts.
BERLIN-"The new Franco Soviet
military alliance, the new rapproche-
mCS between London and Moscow
anu the solidly pro-British attitude
of the Balkan Entente embracing
Greece, Yugoslavia. Turkey and Rou-
mania) all have come into the open
in the past month and they are the
basis of serious discussions in Ger
many.
Chancellor Hitler, in his address
inaugurating the fourth year of the
Nazi regime in Germany, made 1t
plain to Germans and foreigners
alike that national pride, rather than
genuine economic necessity, is behind
the present campaign for the return
of the German colonies. Germans are
resolved to wipe out the wrongs of
Versailles They thought the un-
settlement in the Mediterranean made
this an opportune time to press their
case. 1t seems to have done more
than anything else to reforge the iron
ring of opposition to Nazi expan-
sionist aims.
Year end data covering retail
business for 1885 show that food
prices were up 8 per cent, while shoe
and textile prices were unchanged.
Department store sales declined
again."
MOSCOW-"The change that is
(Continued on Fourth Pape1