TRADE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 121, 22 May 1920, Page 71

TRADE NOTES

INTERESTING DEVELOP. MENTS SOAP FROM CLAY BRITISH FOOTING ABROAD. (FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.'/ LONDON, March. A combination of private traders, with its head offices at the London Chamber of Commerce, haß been formed under the . title of the Amalgamated Trades' Association, to fight Government trading, nationalisation, and bureaucratic conirql of industry. The members of the executive include Mr. C. F. Partington, ex-chairman of the Home, and Foreign Produce Exchange; Mr. E. W. Parsons.. chairman of the Provincial Trades Section of the London Chamber of Commerce ; and Mr. Arthur J. Mills, a past chairman of the Home and Foreign Produce Exchange. I The secretary says : "We are oat to , defend private enterprise and to convincethe country, if we can, that the Government in the national interests should leave trade to the traders. What between the bureaucracy and the extremists of the Labour Party, the private trader in this-country is being threatened with extinction. The association represents already a varied and aggressive group of- traders who are determined not to be snuffed out by Socialistic experiments." .-.--. . ■british footing in ths 1 near ■-;■■■■ east. Major F. B. Kennard, Trade Commie- , sioner for the Near East, under the aegis ■; of the Federation of British Industries, reports : "We have Greece now in our hands. There is not an order for manufactured articles that does not come our way- It is up to the British- manufacturer to keep it." Just before the Armistice ." number of Greek merchants visited Great Britain; they represented the only nationality available at the time. They came and saw a Britain not beaten to her knees commercially, bu* a Britain very, much alive, with factories and works in full swing, ai?.d every man busy with' something. They returned to Greece very much Impressed, and Major Kennard went with them. Then followed c very successful exhibition in Athens, of purely British industries. "As propaganda for British trade that six weeKs of exhibitioning, ending last .November, did more for our trans in the Near East than years of ordinary work could do," said Major Kennard. Now i ;n the East he has fixed up correspond- j ents &i centres Where further developments will assuredly 'take * place—at -Bucharest, Odessa, Sofia, Cairo, Alexandi'ia, Belgrade; Greece, Serbia, Asia Minor, Turkey are all strongly Anglophile, Humani? and Bulgaria also, but they are in juxtaposition with Austria, who is moving heaven and earth, to get her.traces in. The Austrians and Germans will give nine months' credit. .The British will not give credit. This is a point worthy of serious notice, Major Kennard thinks. SYNTHETIC AMMONIA. It is announced that the rights of the new French Georges Claude synthetic ammonia process have been secured for the United Kingdom, South Africa. India, 'Australia,-and New Zealand by Cumberjand Coal, Power, and Chemicals, Limited, of which Mr. \. E. Barton is chairman, and with whom j are associated a powerful and influential British financial group, who intend erecting extensive works in Cumberland as quickly as possible to produce on a large scale synthetic ammonia for the production of fertilisers,- nitric acid, and other chemical .products from' ammonia. ~ "' It is claimed that the new French process has enormous advantages over the German Haber process, and that it represents the greatest development ever known in connection with nitrogenous products. The process, which has been developed byM. Claude at the works of the Grand Paroisee, Monterau, near Fontainebleau, differ essentially from the development given to the original Haber process, hy. aiming at increasing instead of diminishing the pressure at which the mixture of nitrogen and hydrogei? _ are constrained to enter into combination to produce ammonia. The French process increases the pressure of combination to 1000 atmospheres (14,0001b to the square inch), withoutreducing the temperature at which the combination is effected, and ' the yield' of ammonia is increased fourfold up to SO per cent.; while, the speed of.reaction is commensuratoly increased. The power required to compTess to 1000 atmospheres is admittedly greater than to 200 atmospheres, but thero are some ressentiaJ advantages secured: which in the filial result makes the total power expended per ton of syn'thetie ammonia pro* r duced no larger than what is "required j for compression at 200 atmospheres. The first unit of the synthetic ammonia, plant. ! to be installed will be of sufficient size i to provide yearly 50,000 tons of sulphate , of ammonia. It is contended that the -: successful carrying out of the scheme , •will make this country-independent of the importation of Chi^e nitrate, both in peace and war, as the whole of the nitric ' acid, nitrate of ammonia, cyanides, and . various other ammonia- compounds re- i quired for commercial and military pur- | poses will be produced in this country j from synthetic ammonia at a lower price than they could be produced from the imported Chile product. BIG FLAX PURCHASE: The flax industry, which was revived in this country during the war, is to bt> continued in peace. Messrs. Beverley, Peace, and Partners, of 83, Pall Mall, S.W. 1, have acquired on behalf of Mr. J. C. Nixon, of Belfast, well-known as a grower in Ir&land, all the Government flax factories in the Suiby, Peterborough, and Suffolk districts. 'The price is said to be between half and threequarters of a million pounds. Mr. W. J Gavin, who was the first .'.Director of Flax Production in . this country, arid two other demobilised officers in the firm, -have an interest in the new venture. Associated with' the deal are : Mr. M. Godfrey, of Fecamp, Normandy, the largest flax producer in France, and Messrs.. F: G.Foster and Co., of'Selby. The deal embraces all the mills taker ■ over by the Government during the war, except those in the Somerset area. Flax production was reintio'duced in England primarily as a.war measure. Just before the war only' 4CO acres- were'under cultivation in England. During the' war the acreage reached 12,000. There is a serious scarcity of flax at present, as no supplies fere coming from Russia, the great flax-grow-ing country. During the war homegrown flax wag used for the production of the best quality ■ linen for aeroplane fabric. • 45 LOCOMOTIVES A WEEK. A World-wide- shortage I', of locomotives and rowing stock, the result of five years of war, has to be "made good," and the great English' engineering firm . of Armstrong, Whitworth Co. ' are making a. bid for the premier position amongst the locomotive builders of the world. Immediately after the armistice they began the reorganisation of their ammunition works at Scotswood, on Tj'ncside, for tEo construction of locomotives', and these works are the largest and best-equipped of their kind in-the British Empire. ' Their output capacity is

over 400 heavy main-iine engines per annum, and by the summer it- is anticipated that the output- will hive been increased to 45 locomotives per week. Such io the support received from' all parts of the world that consideration is now being given to new and important extensions at these works which , will make them probably the most-important centre in the world for the construction of locomotives. ' BRITISH CHEMIST'S DISCOVERY. la ,The Chemical Age Mr. F. E. Weston, a well-known authority on colloidal chemistry, announces the results of a long. series of experiments as to the use of clay in soap 1 manufacture. His conclusions, if verified, promise to have farreaching- effects on the soap industry of Great Britain, and to effect an enormous reduction in the cost of manufacture.. The essential feature ot the process is the substitution of colloidal clay to a.large extent for the fatty acids, derived from animal and vegetable sources, now used. Colloidal clay is prepared from china clay, a product in which this country is very rich, and if it becomes commercially successful as a substitute for fatty acids, the effect or the cost of soap production must be very marked. Mi. Weston's conclusions are to' be subjected to experiments by independent experts. WRESTED FROM GERMANS. , The record prosperity of the Welsh tinplate trade 15 a< romance of industry. To-day plates are changing hands'at 64s a box," compared with 12s 6'd pre-war. Tho trade is unique in that it is one of those industries that over 100 years ago was established by the "Germans. A Welshman, from Pontypool, was at .that time sent across the North Sea, and he returned with the secret of successfully tinning iron plates. From crude beginnings the Welsh industry'was built up at j various centres, and to-day the process of | manufacture turns out a perfect steel plate coated with tin, which is the envy of German competitors. Many of the chief proprietors have risen through the works to industrial fame and fortune. The iat-e Lord" Glantawe started life as a "boy in the tinworks. -> ' BRITISH DYE MISSION. . A mission consisting of ten representatives of the most important dye users' organisation has gone to Germany to purchase large supplies of fine dyes for use by British manufacturers. They are not under the direction of the- Board of Trade, and ar« not receiving financial support from the Government. But a. Board of Trade official said : "There is a world shortage of dyes,• and it will ir.osfc probably be a long time before that is appreciably eased in this and other countries. The proposal to visit Germany was submitted to the Board of Trade, and was approved as a reasonable way of'easing our position. It is doubtful as to how far this mission can succeed in purchasing what it wanted.. Not 30 per cent, of the pre-war dye manufactories of Germany are at work. Many are completely closed. The total output :s perhaps not above 25 per cent, o: tha pre-war production. The - quantity 01 | dyes'to which. British users are entitled under the reparation clauses of the Peace Treaty will probably be substa-ntiaily in excess of the 15C0 tons stated, but the purchases now being made will be ir. addition to whatever amount may be received under the Peace Treaty." TfENTURY-OLD TEXTILE FIRM. The firm of Cook, Son, and Co., of St. Paul's Churchyard, London, E.C., one of the largest in the' wholesale textile trade, is to< be converted into a limited liability company with. a. capital of £4,000,000. The change.is being made for- family reasons. "Cbokjs,. of. St. Paul's. Churchyard." as the firm is familiarly known, was founded about 1807, in Clerkenwell, by Mr. W. Cook, and within ten years a wholesale business had been started near Billingsgate Market.. After a period in Cheapside, the firm settled in St. Paul's Churchyard 85. years ago. PLENTIFUL, CHEAP, BUT POOR QUALITY. So much has been heard of the possibility of Japanese commercial competition with Great Britain that a report on Japanese labour by Mr. Oswald White, Vice-Consul at Osaka, is of particular interest at the present time. Japanese labour is generally summed up as "cheap in price and poor in quality," and Mr. White saysi this judgment may be accepted as correct. At the same time it is noted that the rise in standard of certain of Japan's more important manufactures, notably cotton piece goods, while largely due to increased experience | on the part of managers, seems to argue that the present defects of Japanese labour are not all of a radical-nature. Today Japan is in a. state of transition. Foriy years ago the factory system was unknown in.the country ; everything was produced under the domestic system. But sin«e the war with Russia, and more particularly during the last five years, Japan has done much towards acquiring ,an important position among manufao- | turing countries. , She has had a supply of chqap labour to draw upon which has I caused her to devote a considerable i portion of her energy to tho making of cheap goods—matches, buttons, braids, : toys, etc. At tho same time plentiful labour has meant low wages, and low i wages, with all the attendant circumstances, have meant poor work. It is Against- the evils of this system that Japan is now struggling, and in his conclusions Mr. White says the conditions 1 are so .complex that changes must come j slowly. Besides interesting facts on industrial conditions, Mr. White presents an illuminating character study of the physical and mental qualities or defects of the Japanese worker, his health, docility, cheerfulness, excitability, and general intelligence. "CHEAP AND NASTY." 'Are we again going to be flooded with cheap and nasty goods from Germany!;" asked the Thames Police Court Magistrate, after finding the German hall-mark on some cutlery which figured in"a case of- unlawful possession. A dock official said the Government was allowing a certain quantity of these goods to cotiui into this country. Tho Magistrate: "I suppose the Board of Trade is responsible. They are giving consent to the. Germane inundating this country with their cheap wares." MOTIVES AND PLANS. One morning between 30 and 40 maim facturers called at the temporary offices of thts Austrian industrial delegates in London to see what they had to offer for sale. Dr. Widimsky, secretary to Dr. Krieh. I'istov, who is head of the party, said that they had cocio to England as the first delegation of a commercial character to endeavour to revive the trade of their country. "Wo have brought with, us," he said," "all kinds of fancy goods of a highly artistic nature. What cash or credit. we get ior them we shall expend in th-s purci&se of ray/ materials, such as leather, metals, etc., tor our home industries. Most of our own industries have stopped fo; 1 the want of supplies, and we should like at last to resume work- and to continue, to live on the charity of other nations. I am hopeful that our stay in London will result in the resumption of business relations between England and our country."