Postwar Locational Changes of British Industry

MONG the world changes wrought in the past two decades none A are more striking or more suggestive than what is happening to the geography of industry. The factors of industrial location are being markedly altered, partly because of a pronounced display of political and economic nationalism, which has the direct effect of reducing merchandise imports from the natural sources of supply and at the same time fostering a less efficient production at home. Allied to this development in state programs appear those military attributes that dominate the procurement and storing of countless commodities of trade. Key industries is a general term that defies definition almost in proportion to the intensity of study it receives from strategists and politicians. Other significant influences of vastly increased importance are the population migrations from rural to urban localities, improvements in transport and communication, the status of the coal industry, chemical discoveries, the failure to discover significant new sources of raw materials and fuels, an increased manifestation of humanitarian planning, and a widening circle of state control. Whether these changes are temporary or permanent, whether they will increase relatively in degree, whether other influences will exert greater force are current questions. That the movements are noteworthy and are not local in their manifestations should be admitted without argument. Their nature, application, and degree of intensity vary from country to country, from community to community. Everywhere governments as well as private groups and individuals are grappling with the pressing problems that have arisen, one might say, almost overnight. The elaborate investigations of the National Resources Committee in the United States are carefully studied abroad as models of organization and presentation of pertinent facts and trends. The totalitarian states-the Soviet Union, the Greater Reich, Italy, and Japan-are conspicuous for their attention to improved methods of industrial planning and operation. Among the other states, Sweden and Great Britain can be singled out for their intelligent, careful consideration of practical problems as they exist today and perhaps tomorrow. Great Britain affords us the best laboratory for observing these industrial changes. Smaller than Sweden or any of the four leading totalitarian states, with an area less than 3 per cent of that of the United States, the British Isles' nevertheless are large enough to

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