Even tariff and currency barriers, it seems, have one advan-
tage. They help to insulate a country, to a moderate extent, against trade fluctuations in the outside world. In his able survey of conditions in the Near Eastern countries at the Ottoman Bank meeting General Sir Herbert Lawrence stressed this point. He also emphasised that despite the general recession, business activity, especially in Turkey, had remained good and in the bank's accounts this is reflected in a sharp rise of £2,235,600 in current accounts, to r6,325Al2. Deposits were also moderately higher, the increased resources having gone into investments, which are £785,171 up, and " current accounts of sundries " (otherwise advances) which have risen by £1,887,341, or over 3o per cent. Earnings of the bank have held steady, for full allowance has been made for the de- preciation of French assets resulting from the fall in the franc, and for the decline last year in the market value of British
Government stocks.
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