24,500,000 PAIRS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 153, 10 September 1941, Page 7

24,500,000 PAIRS

BOOTS AND SHOES

TO HELP OVERS-HAS TRADE', . esk_',. Civilians in Great Britain are now getting along with 24,500,000 fewer pairs of boots and shoes a year, but n steady increase in the numbers shipped overseas is reported from Northampton, heart of the shoe industry. Before the war Britain bought 105,000,000 pairs of leather boots ar.d shoes a year and it is a sufficient Indication of the large resources of the British industry th.at, no!, until July 3, two years after rationing had been begun in Germany, was it necessary to restrict the; total of 80,500,000 pairs. As there is in addition a vast output of service boots and t;hoes anjd of all kinds of footwear for export purposes, there will be no margin) for waste,. Types, unnecessary in ■vartime are discouraged to-day and standard specifications may even be Introduced for certain types of work ing and walking boots and shoes. The continuing success of Britain's shoe leather industries overseas is being maintained at home by the active support of the Board of Trade Avorking through Kxport Corporation. Distributors in the Dominions and in the United States been most encouraging. Tn the United States offices have been taken in the Empjre State Building, New York, as headquarters to promote or group marketing. This neAV enterprise is co-operating Avith British dress designers and the British Colour Council to ensure the correct modelling and colouring of the samples to be offered in the near future to buj r ers !n the chief centres of the United Sjlates..