Mcallen Daily Monitor

BRITAIN RECOVERS FROM WITHIN

Taking the current report of the Barclays Bank as a factual basis.
Great Britain evidently is well on the way to achieving the goal she set herself for recovery from within. Contrary to predictions from many quarters that she could not, by following a program approximating isolation, raise herself out of the depression, she seems to be doing that very thing.

It will be remembered that when the depression was at its worst Great Britain erected a high tariff wall on imports, set up huge signs throughout the Kingdom urging her people to "Buy British," and proceeded to follow a self-sustaining policy, depending little upon relations with the outside world.

The bank review, quoting statistics up to September 24, gives assurance the plan is working well. Unemployment is shown to be at the lowest level in four years and a decline of 10.9 per cent from a year ago. The bank reports that the number of insured workers between 16 years of age and 64 in employment in Great Britain increased about 352,000 during the year, to a total of 10,233,000.

"The relative importance of the home market has increased considerably during the last three years," the bank comments. Increased volume of business is noted in the iron and steel industry and in ship building, and a firmer tone is developing in cloth and yarns. Improvement has been confined mainly to the satisfaction of home requirements, the report states, and trade with overseas markets has continued difficult.

Perhaps Britain can continue indefinitely thus to remain self-supporting and self-sustaining. But the longer she keeps apart from trade with her neighbors, the greater difficulty she will experience in beginning it again. And she will want to begin some time. In a world like ours it is almost impossible to remain independent of international relations forever.