3.
1274
State of British Industry.
in
This view was
British industry shows the most remarkable resiliency,
spite of the difficulties of international trade.
expressed by the President of the Board of Trade in a recent
speech. A misleading impression as to the state of British
industry is sometimes conveyed by the official figures of
unemployment. The present figure of 1,800,000 unemployed does
not mean that all are entirely without occupation. The President
of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce alluded to
this point in his recent presidential address. "Most of the .
number (1,800,000)," he said, "are unemployed only for
comparatively short periods, and only 300,000 have been unemployed
for more than a year continuously."
Two instances may be quoted as fairly reflecting the healthy
condition of British industry. The Morris motor car is to-day
almost as well known abroad as in Great Britain, and during the
first twelve weeks of 1939 orders from abroad for Morris cars
were no less than fifty per cent higher than during the corres-
ponding period of 1938. So promising are the export prospects
that the directors of the company recently decided to spend as
much as £31 millions on equipment and production material.
other instance is from one of the large British tobacco centres,
Bristol. Recent reports show that employment in the tobacco
industry is being maintained at a very satisfactory level, and
that there is every likelihood of the good results obtained by
British tobacco factories in 1938 being repeated in the current
year.
The