• In the House of Commons on Tuesday Sir Philip
Cunliffe-Lister reviewed the state of British trade and pointed out that the figures for the first quarter of 1928, compared with the corresponding figures of 1927, showed that the features which had been prominent since 1924 ecintinued. There had been a rise of imports, especially of manufactured articles and of raw materials to be retained in this country. During the past two months there had been a marked slackening of trade. He was not himself alarmed by this, as progress was invariably marked by a series of jumps but was none the less con- tinuous. As compared with the corresponding quarter of 1927 exports had risen by 4•7 points. The "visible adverse balance of trade" in the first four months of 1928 was £112,000,000 as against £158,000,000 for the first four months of 1927. The production of every British industrial group had increased since 1924, with the exception of the heavy industries. But even among the heavy industries the exports of iron and steel had been maintained and shipbuilding was holding its own. Other good signs were_ the large exports of electrical inachinery and the sustained capacity of the home consumer to buy more freely than before the War.
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