CRISIS IN COTTON

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 5

CRISIS IN COTTON

INDUSTRY IN STRAITS

GOODS TOO DEAR FOR MARKET

CHEAPER RAW MATERIAL

NEEDED.

(UMItSD PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIWGHT.) (Sydney Sun Cable.) (Received 3rd October,. noon.)

LONDON, 2nd October.

The "Daily Mail" states that the Lancashire cotton industry is experiencing the biggest crisis in its history. Many companies are reaching the end of their tether. Bad trade is rapidly consuming capital. Cotton goods cost thrice the pre-war price, and the natives of India, China, and the Far East, who were the principal customers, are unable to buy. • The exports for the last two years have been little over half those before the war. The goods can only be made cheaper by reducing the costs of production, and a lower price of cotton. The American staple is now about Is 4d a pound, compared with 6d before the war. Three.successive small crops of cotton in America have caused scarcity. Stocks of American cotton have been reduced to 2,500,----000 bales, and are unlikely to exceed 1500 bales in 1923. Lancashire will have to realise fresh sources of supply. Cotton will have to be found. In the opinion of experts, America will never again be able •to furnish Lancashire with adequate supplies of raw cotton at a reasonable price.