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 of the benefits in the matter of export trade, alleged to be wrought by inflation. At the time when complaints by British producers were loudest, of ruthless competition by Germans with the help of the depreciated mark, it looked as if there must be something else besides currency depreciation that was helping Germany. Because at that time currency depreciation in Poland and Austria—to say nothing of Russia—was very much more acute; it seemed therefore that if debasing the currency was the short cut to fortune through international trade, Poland and Austria ought to be the dangerous competitors rather than Germany. Moreover the surprising fact appeared that some of the competition by which British industry at the time of the depression that began in 1920 was most fiercely attacked came from countries the currencies of which were at a premium as compared with sterling.

For instance in October 1921 there was a debate in the House of Commons on a Trade Facilities Bill and various examples were given of the alleged helplessness of British industry in the face of its foreign rivals. Sir Fortescue Flannery told the House that a ship went aground in the North Sea. She was brought off and taken into a Thames dry dock and tenders were invited for repairs. "The lowest