Foreign Trade Improving Those who have been saying that no-
subStantial further improvement in the employment figures was to be looked for until our foreign trade increased were probably right. The September unemployment figures in fact did improve, and it is reassuring to see that the foreign trade returns for the same month showed a most encouraging upward movement. It is, of course, unsafe to generaliZe from the figures of a single month ; but September was remarkable as reaching, in respect of exports, the highest total recorded in the first nine months of a year which as a whole is well ahead of the previous year. • Whilst imports have remained com- paratively steady, the exports for September. showed an increase of £1,780,961 as compared with September, 1933, and the advance was all along the line, mainly in manufactured goods—iron and steel, machinery, motor-cars, cutlery, and even cotton and woollens. There were considerable increases in exports to South America, but apart from these the increases were mainly to be found in goods sent to Empire countries or countries on the sterling standard. Exchange conditions facilitate trade within the sterling group. Outside, they are impeding it.
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