in the exchange at the time payment is effected may entirely eliminate all profit and possibly convert it into a serious loss. Then again, the high cost of production in this country, especially of manufactured commodities where the wages of labour form 60-85 per cent. of the total cost of production, makes it impossible for the British manufacturer to sell sufficiently cheaply abroad, especially in the face of competition of similar goods produced in countries with a depreciated currency which stands at an external value much below its internal value. In addition, some countries to which we have lent money, and which pay us no interest thereon, are erecting heavy tariff barriers against us, and by subsidies and restrictions on coastwise trade and emigration are injuring seriously British shipping and trade. Establishment of International Peace International trade implies mutual dependence. If one country goes out of business it injures all other countries, even those that never traded directly with it. Trade must languish in countries where conditions are unsettled. It should be the first aim of the Government in concert with its Allies to establish peace generally throughout the world. That has been authoritatively declared. In accordance with arrangements made by the Council of the League of Nations, an International Financial Conference was convened at Brussels on September 24, 1920. The duty entrusted by the Council to the Conference was to study the international financial crisis and seek for means of remedying it and of mitigating the dangerous consequences arising from it, subject to the provision that no matter included in the then pending negotiations between the Allies and Germany should be discussed. There were eighty-six members at the Conference, representing thirty-nine different countries. As the chief essential for the recuperation of industry and the revival of trade, the Conference insisted on the establishment of a real, as distinct from a paper, peace: “First and foremost the world needs peace. The Conference affirms most emphatically that the first condition for the world’s recovery is the restoration of real peace, the conclusion of wars which are still being waged and the assured maintenance of peace for the future. The continuance of the atmosphere of war and of preparations for war is fatal to the development of that mutual trust which is essential to the resumption of normal trading relations. The world must resolve the rivalries and animosities which have been the inevitable legacy of the struggle by which Europe has been torn.” “The security of internal conditions is scarcely less important, as foreign trade cannot prosper in a country whose internal conditions do not inspire confidence. The Conference trusts that the League of Nations will lose no opportunity to secure the full restoration and continued maintenance of peace.”