* The soaring figures of United States exports to South
America and to the Far East are dismally eloquent when compared with the very slight increase which British trade can show. Japan, too, has outstripped us. In Western Europe, British exports have fallen by about 40 per cent. Mr. McDougall draws the inference that Great Britain can most easily repair this deficiency by developing Empire trade. Although the Dominions are consumed as much as any new European nation with the desire to have their own local manufacturing indus- tries, the necessary industrial plant and equipment is in almost all cases purchased from Great Britain. He would have us develop these sheltered markets for British industry so that this country should have a security similar to that which the United States enjoys in her vast home demand. He assumed that this increased output would enable British manufacturers to reduce overhead costs and so be better equipped for com- petition elsewhere. * *
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