PERIOD OF STRESS AND STRAIN
Yet the few years which were to follow 1930 threatened the very
existence of the Ministry. This unsettling process, however, was not so
much the consequence of the revolution of 1932 as one of its contributing
causes. the world economic depression had brought a decline in
foreign trade and retrenchement at home. Significant cuts were made
in the number of officials-a decline of 17 per cent in the period between
1925 and 1932, or a loss of 3,000 jobs by the 45,000 men in the career
service.