LORD INCHCAPE ON TRADE.
At the annual meeting of the P. & 0. Co. Lord Inchcape was in his usual good form, and after presenting the very satisfactory Report, with its increased dividend, to the shareholders, he made some encouraging observations with regard to the trade outlook. Although, as he said, the future was not without its anxieties, Lord Inchcape added : " I am optimistic enough to believe that the trade of the country will revive before long, especially as the Government appears determined to pursue a path of economy in public expenditure and to ease the burdens on industry." Lord Inchcape, however, before concluding his speech, uttered a strong warning against the folly of imagining that the road to pros- perity is to be found by a supersession of the Capitalist system in favour of State control. In no country in the world, he said, is there such an order of things except in Russia, and we are aware of what has happened there. And later, Lord Inchcape said: " I look at the law-abiding and orderly people, not in London alone, but all through the land, with life and property everywhere protected. I think of our Constitution and our form of government, in which every citizen has a voice ; and of our Constitutional Monarch, who is beloved by all classes of the community. I think of the opportunity which is given to every one, from ` Duke's son ' to ' cook's son,' to rise to any position under the Crown. I look at this and I think of Russia, and I feel certain that no revolution such as took place there, bringing ruin, misery, starvation, and death, not only to the well-to-do, but to the poor, will ever occur here. We shall, I am convinced, continue, throughout the Empire, and for all time, to sing those soul-stirring words ' God Save the King.' "
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