16 APRIL 1932, Page 32

Finance—Public & Private

The International Crisis

I COULD wish it were possible when expressing an opinion- with regard to the present financial outlook to cenfine consideration to a survey of conditions in this country. In such circumstances it would be possible to take a moderately hopeful view of the situation. It is true that trade remains depressed and the volume of unemployment terribly large, but nevertheless in these directions there are at least some small signs of improvement, while as regards the national finances we have succeeded for the time being, at all events, in substituting national, for mere class interests with the result that some measure of con- fidence has been restored and an equilibrium has been established in the national balance-sheet.