While there were many things the Government could do to help industry, the President of the Board of Trade added, nothing compared in importance with what the Government could "do for industry if its actions. should result in a relaxation] of international tension and removal of fear of war, Mr. Stanley said that 1997, apart! from' weaknesses which developed questions recently was taken up by the Minister in his speech, He said the adverse balance last year amounted to £52,000,000, com= Fared with 18,000,000 a' year before. The 252,000,000 was" affected to some extent by the special trans action in silver, amounting to about £11,000,000, He thought the adverse Ealance of 52,000,000 was not, in itself, very frightening. Tt was true that the excess of imports of mer-Jchandise rose from 340,000,000" 1936, 10 £432,000,000 in 1987 but an analysis of the cause of the rise showed that it was not due' to a decline in United Kingdom exports, The volume of exports had increas. ed by 9% per cent, The Increased excess of imports was due almost entirely to a rise in the price of ported commodities,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.