Mr. Robert Smillic and Mr. Frank Hodges were in Brussels recently at a miners' conference, and they doubtless learned the interesting fact that in Belgium at the present moment the output of coal is 95 per cent. of what it was at this period in 1914, and that this figure would be a good deal greater were it not for the circumstance that during the occupation the Germans worked the veins of coal nearest the surface. The poorer veins now being worked demond much extra labour.
This is a very striking com mentary on the energy which the Belgium miner is putting into his work and his anxiety to assist in the national work of reconstruetion by doing all in his power to provide the basic of indust And the miner is not the only workman who is putting his soul into the work of produc: ton, and more production, without which he realizes that the exchange, which is so adverse to Belgium at present and is making the cost of living so high, cannot be regulated.
The course of the exchange is followed in England with extraordinary popular interest. It by every purchaser of an evening is the first item of news turned to
paper, and it is little exaggeration to say that every man and every woman, too, can tell you the day's rate of hand. With the rate of exchange more favourable to the country there is not the slightest doubt that the progress of industry in Belgium would be very rapid.
Indeed, as it is, her recovery has been wonderful, and her progress in the work of reconstruction has been greater than in any other belligerent country in Europe, when it is remembered that for more than four years she was under an invader who has gone less than a year and a half.
British banks are taking a big hand in business, and the two great London banks which have opened offices here are doing a huge and increasing business and are employing hundreds of clerks.
The recovery of Brussels itself is remarkable. The town is brighter, cleaner, gayer, and more prosper: ous-looking than before the war.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.