In a speech on Saturday evening the Prime Minister empha-
sized the fact that trade depression was largely due to the breakdown of the exchanges. " Trading under these conditions is like playing billiards in an Atlantic liner when there is a heavy sea on. The exchange is pitching and rolling, and you never know into whose pocket the ball will go." He had, he mid, an uneasy suspicion that Germany was not trying to stabilize
the mark. He compared her action to that of debtors who, when summoned to the county court, went in their oldest clothes. He thought that Germany was purposely exaggerating the deficit in her Budget, to suggest that she could not pay an indemnity. But when the terms were fixed, she would pay, because she was a strong, capable) and efficient nation. The Prime Minister indulged in some sharp criticism of Mr. Asquith's recent speeches, and said that the depleted energies of the exhausted world would not be restored " with a tasteless rehash of the tinned meats of Abingdon Street "—the Independent Liberal headquarters.
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