WHAT WE WERE 3.7? _AGAINST. Not only had America drawn
heavily- upon our stores of gold,. but in place of our holding over £1,000 Millions in • American securities, we had re-sold them during the War to America, and, in addition, had= ncurred a direct obligation - to her of like amount. This laftet obligation,:_ Moreover, . was . incurred in connexion with payment to the States for goods at fabulous War prices, ;whereas, even assuming a ready market for our exports, we could never hope to sell them at anything approaching War figures. In the . second place, it soon became evident that many European and other foreign countries who during the period of the War had found them- selves short .of manufactured articles, had begun to manufacture for themselves, and in many of the European countries and in India and the Far East we were faced with greater competition than had ever been known by this country.
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