Two most interesting tele grams appear in to-day's issue relative to British trade. One reports the speech of Mr. Me-Kenna, the. chairman of the Midland Bank, on this subject, and the other mentions the arrival of gold bullion to the Jsmount of £1,000,000 sterling as deposit, covering a considerable volume of orders for textile machinery for Russia. ~The depression through which Great Britain has been passing, it was pointed out by Mr. McKenna, was due largely to temporary financial conditions which he hoped were now at an end, The transition back to a gold standard had seriously injured export trade, but this was fast disappearing. Possibly one of the most important factors which Jappears not to have been covered, but which undoubtedly hag had a profound effect upon the trade of the world, and, therefore, to a great extent upon that of Great Britain was the insecure position of international credit so long as arrangements had not been made for the settlement of the debts owed between the Allies, So long these enormous sums were left floating in the air with no apparent provision for their ultimate redemption, it was apparent that debtor nations suffered in their credit to an extent which had to be reflected in their trade. It may not be entirely a truism to state that the credit of a'trader is no bet ter than thnt of his country, but it is more or less a correct estimate of the relationship between the credit of a nation and the credit of its traders A. striking example of this is to be found in the case of Russia, Not a few "Russian delegations have been into European, countries endeavouring to place orders for machinery 0 sorely needed by Russia in the immense work of rehabilitation which stands before it. Obviously where the system of international credit had been broken by the Soviet denunciation of Russia's national debt, it was unlikely that business on any system of credit with the prospective buyers could be successfully carried out, never was the proposition that Russia should be called upon for an immediate settlement. of the liabilities incurred under the Tsarist regime, but that they, should be recognized and ad-Jequate measures taken for their liquidation within the terms of the contracts upon which they were originally created. Failing that, there was a complete breakdown of the credit system so far 2s Russia was concerned "and the shipment of bullion to Great Britain, as a security for the commercial debts it is sought to incur, speaks volumes for the effect of such a default.
We have only to multiply flits Jone instance by an adequate number" of countries to ganga the effect of a wholesale demur:" ciation of international debts.
Immense specie shipments as a preliminary to closing important contracts would very speedily have a retarding effect upon-commerce, even if it only resulted in the tying up of enormous sums of money which would ordinarily be kept fluid by our present-day credit system. Possibly the fact that Russia can only trade on such a basis when she is in the buying market, may have the effect of making her see that, until she takes steps to rehabilitate her credit, and g|that can only be by accepting liability. for the debt incurred lby the former regime, even her purchases abroad will only be" effected at considerable incon venience, and no little: cost-ito herself.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.