22 FEBRUARY 1930, Page 36

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

Above all, however, I think that there is an increasing sense of the serious character of the prolonged depression in this country in some of our staple industries, its effects both economic and social being increasingly grave. The Trade Reports for the first month of the year showed a further serious fall in the general turnover of our foreign trade, the total value of imports and exports for January declining by about £25,000,000 as compared with the same month of last year, while the weekly returns of unemployment show the same unfavourable tendencies.