BRITISH MOTORS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19735, 27 September 1929, Page 4

BRITISH MOTORS.

tHE DOMINIONS' MARKETS. ROOM FOR OPTIMISM. (now ova owv coawssposuEKT.) LONDON, August 23. Recent correspondence in the columns of '"the Times" has been concorned with the position of British cars in the Dominions. Sir James Barrett, president of the Royal Empire Society, told a rather sad story of the position in Australia and New Zealand, as also did Dr. W. Sampson Handley, of Harley street. Mr Alfred Hacking, of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, howeter, defends the trade. Commenting upon the letters, "The Times" says: To assert ihat the failure of British motor manufacturers to hold their own in foreign markets. is due to lethargy or want of initiative is not a fair charge and does great harm to British i>restige. The manufacturers know at east as well as those who find fault with their methods the value of the trade whioh the Dominions have to offer, and have, of oourse, given much thore oareful thought to the work of overcoming the conditions which have made arid still make it difficult for thejn to seicure a larger part of it. In spite of these difficulties there is, as Mr Hacking ventures to observe, room for optimism. In the first seven months of this year the value of British exports to the* world of motor vehicles and parts amounted to £9,200,000, as compared with £7,000.000 in the corresponding period of last year. To have achieved that amount of progress in the face of the handicaps under which the industry labours i 8 a definite proof that British firms at motor. manufacturers are not as'eep. To put it on the lowest grounds, thev are alive to their own interests. They are not standing still and are not lacking in imagination, while thp quality of their products is universally admitted to be excelled by those of no nation in the world. Formidable Handicaps. But the to be overcome in facing this competition of the United States—handicaps, it must be remembered, by which Franoe, Italy, Belgium and Germany are also affected—are distinctly formidable. _ln the first years of the war American manufacturers gained a very long start, by virtue of which they were able to establish in many parts of the world the predominant position in the supply of motor vehicles and accessories which is Still theirs, and cannot easily, be taken from them. They have Within their own borders a huge protected market for standardised products that are as suitable for the conditions in most foreign markets as they are for those in the United States. The mass Production justified by the sijse of this ome market enables them to produce in gireat quantities and to reduce the oost of production to a point which cannot at present be reached by those who have only at their command the much smaller home market of this country. Further, because of the greater similarity of American roads to those in the British Dominions, the types of car which they produce for their own people are inevitably better suited to the requirements of the Dpminions than the cars built for use m Great Britain. Steady Progress. Finally it must not be forgotten that British makers, because of the system of British car taxation, have to keep the horse-power of their engines as low as possible. Nevertheless, in the teeth of these obstacles to the expansion of their oversea trade, British makers are making steady if slow progress, and are gradually getting nearer to the time, it may be.hoped, when they will be able to place on the oversea market a typo of ear which will be able to bring within their grasp a much larger proportion of Dominion trade than at present they command Already some progress has followed the setting up in 1927 of machinery for promoting cooperation between all sections of manufacturers of motor products in develop ing the taotor industry at home and abroad.