ACUTE PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 58, 1 December 1933, Page 11

ACUTE PROBLEM

Japanese Competition UNFAIR ASPECTS Trade Marks Infringed MR. W. RUNCIMAN'S REVIEW (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 29. Speaking during a debate in the House of Commons on the effect on export trade of Japanese competition, Mr. Walter Runciman, President of tlie Board of Trade, said the Government had for a very long time been kept fully informed of the - position in Lancashire. Tjiey had been giving attention to the best and most profitable way of approaching the problems which increased Japanese competition involved. When last before the House the Government expressed itself in favour of an attempt being made by the industrialists themselves in the first place, and they had been justified by what had happened in India in the last four months. The fall of imports of English cloths into India was one of the greatest problems that had to be faced. The Indian boycott was now over and Lancashire was about to regain some portion of the market lost during the boycott. Fortunately, the industrialists who went to India were able to reach an agreement with the cotton produc-

ers. There were other parts of the world where it was not so easy to deal with the situation, and in India itself they had not been able to dispose of the whole problem. Japan was a verylarge importer into India, and the imports had been going up year by year. The Indian Government was very much alive to the situation and were in the closest consultation with' representatives of Japan. If there was any delay in these negotiations it had not been the fault of the British Government. Unfair Competition.

Referring to unfair competition based on infringement of designs and trade marks, Mr. Runciman said this was a matter which gave cause for a good deal of trouble, not in this country so much as elsewhere, for here machinery for dealing with the infringement of trade marks and copyrights of designs was fairly complete. In some portions of the British Empire, however, goods had been imported from Japan bearing British names and British trade marks.

That was a form of dishonesty which any Government, whether >n the east or the west, ought to do its best to suppress.

If it was necessary to take steps, and if the Government would be given material on which to take steps, they were prepared to take them, but he hoped that by making representations the necessary impression would be made on the minds of those in control of Japanese commercial affairs. He did not see that there would be any advantage to Lancashire industry, if they began, as was suggested in some quarters, by abrogating the Anglo-Japa-nese Treaty, which he reminded the House so affected some thirty other countries in the British Empire. He preferred first to exhaust all other means, but if they found it necessary to renounce the Treaty, then he would consider the whole subject from a different point of view and with quite a different intent. Private Member's Motion. The debate, says a Press Association message, was initiated by a private member, Mr. A. E. G. Fuller, who moved in the direction of urging the Government to take steps to minimise Japanese competition, regarding which nothing adequate had yet been donO. Mr. Fuller gave some striking figures of Japanese trade with Britain and the Empire. Japan’s exports, he said, had increased by 96 per cent, in the first nine months of 1933. Japan was sending thirty million square yards of cotton to Kenya and Uganda compared with Britain’s five millions. Japanese bicycles were selling in parts of the Far East at 21/- each, electric bulbs at 1/6 a dozen, lead pencils at 1/10 a gross, and fountain pens at 3d. each. Japan in the past twelve years had subsidised shipping companies to the extent of £18,000,000. Mr. H. A. Proctor said that if Japanese competition was unchecked there would be no Lancashire cotton industryleft after four years. The whole Empire and the Western world were alarmed because the people's standard of life was threatened by Japanese competition. Sir Herbert Samuel said that Lancashire had lost five-sevenths of the prewar export trade, chiefly owing to the collapse of the Indian trade and Japan’s competition. The chief cause of Japan's success was lower wages and automatic looms. The Japanese cotton industry was a highly efficient organisation, and Lancashire's a loose mass of unorganised entities. The only way to recover international trade was a concentration on reduction of. costs. Japan’s subsidies and currency restrictions were illegitimate competition, and must be counteracted. ANGLO-DUTCH ACTION Conference of Industrialists The Hague, November 29. The Federation of British Industries and the Dutch Employers’ Federation are conferring on December 2 with a view to Anglo-Dutch co-operation against Japanese competition in India and Europe.