BRITISH BRUSHWARE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18549, 26 November 1925, Page 11

BRITISH BRUSHWARE.

_ « An application was recently. made by the British Manufacturers' Association and kindred bodies, -under jhe Safeguarding of Industries Act. for the imposition of a duty of 45 per cent, ou imported brushes and brooms. The application was made jointly by employers and employed. The associations in a memorandum, stated that 11,893 men and women are at present engaged in the brush trade. The imports increased from 1.829,839 dozen in 1913 to 3,474,674 dozen in 1924. It was estimated that the British output of (5,770,000 dozen in 1913 had been reduced to 5,579,046 dozen in 1924. Imported brooms, brushes. toilet brushes and painters' brushos were being sold in the United Kingdom at .prices below those at which similar goods could be profitably manufactured or produced in the United kingdom. Employment was seriously affected by the unfair competition from Germany, Belgium, Japan, France, and the Netherlands; there being a reduction of 15.14 per cent, in the number of workpeople since 1913. The total "consumption'" of brushes in Britain last vear was 8,178,647 dozen, of which 3,476.674 doien came from abroad. It was stated that unfair competition from abroad arose out of the depreciation of the exchange and cheap labour. The industry was subsidised _in Czec-ho-Slovakia. Germ.in rates of pay for skilled and unskil.ed men ranged from 63d t« 8d an hour, for skilled and unskilled women from 4}d to 5Jd an hour.