Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1936. THE COTTON INDUSTRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 98, 6 February 1936, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1936. THE COTTON INDUSTRY.

ihe outspoken speech by Sir Walter Preston in the House of Commons, in which he said that Japan was ousting Lancashire from the world’s market for cotton owing to her more modern methods, deals with a problem that has exercised the manufacturers in Britain for many years. Hitherto, however, the chief complaint has not been in respect to modernisation of the industry but' in respect to conditions of labour and wages. Indeed, the question of unfair competition has received world-wide attention. At an international conference held two years ago at Prague, a comprehensive survey of the position was made by M. Otto Bankwitz, a Polish expert, issued later as a bulletin by the International Federation of Manufacturers' Associations, which has its headquarters in Manchester. According to this survey the introduction of modern methods of production and marketing are only part of the foundation of the dominance of the Japanese. M, Bankwitz declared that in the face of dou-ble-shift working, cheap labour and inflation, all the advantages were possessed by Japan, with whom he associated also China, and British industry was pbwerless. So far Chinese manufacture has not been given much attention, but according to Mr T. D. Barlow (a former President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce), great as has been the Japanese onslaught upon markets which Lancashire has long considered her own, it is nothing compared with what is expected from China in the near future, its imminence depending on the recovery of the country from the turmoil that now hampers production. China and Japan, however, do not constitute the sole difficulty, for M. Bankwitz said he foresaw another serious competitor in Russia, which, with a surplus of raw cotton beyond the requirements of the country, dumps cotton goods abroad at almost any price. In fact, Russia has long been underselling Japan in the Egyptian market. But Egypt mav not remain a market. As a result of the contraction d the export trade in raw cotton she herself has started manufacture, and though the output is yet negligible only the future can reveal the ultimate effect on the market. In the meantime the Japanese have introduced the most modern methods, while, largely owing to the attitude of the operatives in Lancashire, many of the mills mi Britain continue in the old-fashioned way. Labour’s objection, against 'he scrapping of machinery that might be utilised in some undetermined future, is against reason, because the increasing competition will have the effect of putting manufactures produced on obsolete lines out of the market altogether. So tar from there then being a chance of utilising the present looms the demand will be so reduced that even the more progressive firms will find their market dwindling.