BRITAIN'S TRADE PROSPECTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 6

BRITAIN'S TRADE PROSPECTS.

The "Daily Herald" lias announced that if pressure can be brought to bear upon the employers who threaten to reduce wages in the cotton industry, it will reccivc"full public support." No doubt in some ways a "lock-out" would be as disastrous as a strike, and if the men are simply starved into submission, the prospects of industrial peace at Home will be gloomy indeed. It must be remembered also that the woollen industry is in grave difficulties, and that only the hope of "safeguarding" has encouraged the employers to face the heavy competition to which they are exposed. Now that hope is gone, it is for the new Government to decide how Britain's staple textile industries are to meet their rivals successfully in either domestic or foreign markets. Under existing conditions neither the cotton nor the woollen trade can "carry on" without heavy and prolonged loss. Something may be done to adjust differences between the mill-owners and the workers by conferences on Mond-Turner lines. But it does no good to blame the capitalists solely for unemployment or low wages while our cotton and woollen producers are struggling desperately to hold their own against tremendous odds in the markets of the world.