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term), continued their agitation in the same irresponsible manner, until 

 in the end the whole senseless movement collapsed. 



In home-politics, too, the situation in the United Kingdom appears to 

 be far from bright. The final stages of the debate on the Home Rule Bill 

 give promise of a winter of political excitement, and the widespread 

 agitation which is being set on foot against the Bill (a measure which is 

 thoroughly detested in many quarters), warrant the gravest fears in certain 

 districts, such as Ulster, unless, before their realisation, events should 

 occur by which the Home Rule Bill is again consigned to limbo for an 

 indefinite time. Such an event would be the fall of the Liberal Government, 

 to accomplish which the Unionist party has recently been straining every 

 nerve. 



The fact that, in spite of all these critical conditions, our London 

 branch house is once more able to look back upon a period of satisfactory 

 activity, is a proof of that great elasticity of the British market to which 

 we have already had occasion to refer in previous reports. The monthly 

 Board of Trade Returns of Imports and Exports have throughout shown 

 increased totals, with the exception of the month of June, which marked 

 the culminating point of the dock, strike, and in which a decrease was 

 bound to occur, because during this period the movement of merchandise 

 of all descriptions, with the exception of the importation of food-stuffs, 

 was completely paralysed. In the month of August British trade again 

 showed a considerable increase, the imports being £ 9138047 and the 

 exports £ 7696021 in excess of those of the same month of the year 1911. 



Trade with British India has continued to move within normal limits, 

 although here and there complaints of flat markets and lack of buying 

 enterprise were heard. We have repeatedly taken occasion to refer in 

 our Reports to the fact that India is systematically flooded with rubbish, 

 and we are still compelled, with regret, to complain of the unfair compe- 

 tition which we so often encounter in this market. 



According to the report of the German Consul in Bombay the monsoon 

 in Western and Central India has so far, generally speaking, taken a 

 favourable course. At its commencement in June it was very weak and 

 irregular, leading to serious fears for agriculture, the more so because 

 there had also been but little rain in the previous year. But within the 

 last few weeks the monsoon has set in very strongly, with the result db 

 that up to the present the rainfall has been sufficient and that a normal 

 course may now be looked for. A specially favourable circumstance is 

 that precisely in the distressed districts of Kathiawar, Gujerat and Panch 

 Mahals, which suffered from the great drought of last year, an abundance 

 of rain has fallen throughout the present monsoon. Generally speaking 

 the agricultural situation, which only recently was still critical, now holds 

 out satisfactory prospects. From all districts the reports of the condition 

 of the crops are favourable, the crops in the cotton-growing districts 



