SOME FAVOURABLE SIGNS.
If, however, America should at a fairly early date give evidence of taking any enlightened view of the problem of War Debts, I think there will then be good grounds for encouragement with regard to prospects for the current year. Already there are signs of America taking a much broader view of the Economic Conference, for whereas some months ago President Hoover stipu- lated that War Debts and Reparations must be excluded from the Conference if a representative of the United States attended, there is now a disposition to suggest that no topic should be excluded from the agenda which may bear upon the general financial and economic situation. So far as this country is concerned, there are not wanting signs of improvement in the industrial outlook. Even the figures of the general turnover of money during last year, as expressed in the clearing of bank cheques, are not without their encouraging aspect. It is true that for the year there was a reduction of no less than £4,000,000,000 in the total of the clearings, but the worst figures were those for the first quarter of the year, the percentage decline in the second and third quarters being progressively smaller, while in the final quarter there was quite a substantial increase. The latest • railway traffic returns have also been of a somewhat more encouraging character.
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