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~ IA BAMS JA r) REVIEW; ..…

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A BAMS JA r) REVIEW; ,i\r\ ,1 Q a &1 w Ui SIR EDWAiD HOLOE N'S ANNUAL 81 AI tMENL Sir Ed vara Holden has again given the financial and j:>oliticatl peopio of th43 nation another of his annual statements, in the course of hi", address to the ehare- holders of the great Hank over which he prosidos with such conspicuous ability, h.' iurrejed the iiaaiiciai position, of trie greater part of the world, and, as usual, J showed not only a complete mastery over the details of the subject, but also a keen appreciation of the meaning of de-- tails. Those who know him, and they are many, a?ways look to Sir Edward for wise guidance and for sage deductions ftoiu the data at his disposal, and not the ieast of the charms of 11;5 addresses is the faculty h-e haw of sotting forth what lie has to gay iu language that is at once vigorous in its grasp on his subject and plain to the understanding of even the uninitiated. There is, aiso, his remark- able faculty of adapting himself to the particular phase.? as governed by the l?ricd, l1d thoM who re?d the &peoch reported in another column ox this j-suc will find that he is fully up to date m 1 his tummary of the international position ns affcded by the great war now in pro giess. 'That is why v,e venture to çœn- mend the speech to the attention of. everyone who can spare time to read it. Sir Edward Iloldeu commenced his re- marks with a note of certainty, end ended with a llot, of optimism. London is still the eeatre of the world's tin,-tuce. and -he believes that it will remain "0. But beiweeji the tvjo assertions there are sonous factors and grave warnings. AI. though he does not go into details upon! this particular point, he is quite piain in the warning that our exports are Dot fcnliicient to meet the cost of the import, and also in his indication that people of tlie nation at large rill be obliged sooner or later—and the tooner the better—to j practice far greater economy than is the j case at present, particularly m the ex-! tent to which they are consumers of articles produced abroad that come under the head of luxuries. It was no part of Sir Edward's task to enter upon the poll-1 tici*l aspect of the case. Had it been, lipi might have referred to the fact that for the past year our imports were worth about 450 millions sterling more than our exports in kind. This mean6 that the Government will be justi-l iied, if tome improvement IS not effected by other means, in taking steps to curtail the amount of luxuries brought into the country. Unfortun- ately, people do not realise that every El of burden tiiey throw upon the bankers who nave to arrange the necessary inter- national transactions means an increase oi dead weight in the side of the scale that tends to higher exchange rates. To illustrate the point, vte emphasise a fnw figures, some drawn from Sir Edward Holden's speech, some from spec cues by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and (yme from the Board of fiade returns, M:. MeKenna has tcld us that the cost 01 the war is already about £ 1,625,000,000. That renre.-futs the commitments that! the Government lias entered upon for the j year. To that must be added the balance to the bad ci' ??('JCC.MO on the import Rnd export account, for, no matter what casuistry is applied to the problem, the- fact remains that we are not a self-con- I taire's! nation to the extent of that sum on last year's figures. That, means a total of considerably over £ 2.(KM),OM.000 to toe bad for the one year just ended. I'o that mu.? be added the Ios of home produced wealth caused by the adverse rates ci cxeh^nge. That is to say, a man who h"ld a 'overe?gn in 1013 could buy goods in America to the value of a ?maU fraetiou below 5 dollars, but in 1015 could j buy only 4 A dollars worth. Tbe influence of such depreciation cannot be traced to '.ts ultimate stage. All sorts of losses | jollew upon it; but one thing certain is the higher the exchanges against trie £ r«g!i:h sicrling the higher he the cos I of everything necessary tn trade, industry and human existence in the British Isles Aof this part of the subject to which Sir Edward devoted lus at tention I is significant. British credit amongst our Allies is good. us hope that it rill remain so. not so much be se k) "he amount of business done as for its effect as a reminder to the people and Governments of those nations of tbcv extent to which England i6 bear- ing n., helping them i to bear theirs through the war. The significance of this phase is political, and can become commercial only when the authorities have to. settle terms in conntctiou with the huge loans and other financial commitments that we have undertaken on behalf of the Allies, But in neutral countries the exchange is against us, to varying degrees. Sir Edward i Iloldeu devotes considerable attention to j the point, and makes a really invaluable; comparison between the financial position of England with the outside nations and of Germain with the nations outside her ambit. His summary and analysis shows 11 thai England holds by far the better posi- tion. which is satisfactory. But. it does not. belp us when we come to consider the effect upon our domestic positiou. What-! ever may be said about the seriousness of Germany's financial position, we have to face the fact that our own might be belter—and ought to be better if the! necessary improvement can be achieved by any means. One of the best hits made by jihe present Bishop of St. David's kit a great London meeting of church work- I ers was, If you can do better in the future, it is evidence that you have done badly in the past. In any work, von must always do your best The prin- j cinle of the Lord Bishop's utterance ap-, plies to the financial position of the nation to-day. Within the limits of a speech to a meet- ing of bank shareholders, Sir Edward j U olden could not enter all the by-ways 01 his subject. He, very wisely and Vf"i,V &My. took a leading theme and followed ?t with infinite patience to its logical Conclusion. One line of thought that may be added here is of extreme importance, VI7. that in dealing with the trade of the country We are (to use a somewhat siangy phrase) "up against a very tall proposltlQn." The maintenance of a øound filancial position is necessary to the we are of ?? man, woman and C?Id in the 1?. There is, alas too n,?h d(,in(:v to r?ard finane as a mat- V.r ior Ih?dn?.dl?treet. and Down- ing-ci.reet. r unately( it is just as impo!-?< to the {'ildrl1 who play in th" st?t? o ??? '??? ? -?? the bv-Ianes the qtuee of Lr Undilo 4ud the bv-lanes oi the citv o? f Loa? do? n. r?h?t merchant in the city of Ivn o. Wh?rev?r a loaf of bread or a P°U of eUgar j, Mid, tbH(" the pinch a?d pressure ? adverse terhanges in New "Vore and Hong Kong, ou, a and Tokio are felt severely. And the accumulation of 6uen iterns is eUor- naous. To sum out a total of the value of one year's trade in the British Isles would be an almost imp03si™e task. The nearest idea we can get is from the ('.Ienrng R-ouse-retui-iLs, and these for last :.ar .were stupendous enough for any one raan to think over. They support Sir Edward Holden's contentions so much Wiafc we-make no apology for aildiJJg them to a comment on his admirable address. Bankers' clearings in the year just ended 84rgregated £ 13,407,725,00<V, or a de- crease of £ 1.257.323,000 as compared with 1911. A reduction following that shown in the previous year was inevitable, but the total exceeded the turnover for the years 1905 to 1908. The contraction, it is j note hie. was entirely in financial, as dis- tinguished from commercial, clearings, and was attributable to the absence of Stock Exchange settlements and new; isstitis of the ordinary type. It is also' of interest to nottee that the decrease was j wholly J.J1. town clearings, tMøe of the j

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