TRADE OBSTACLES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 149, 21 December 1923, Page 3

TRADE OBSTACLES

CAN BRITAIN SUPPLY THE DOMINIONS? LABOUR AND LATE CONTRACTS. (FBOH OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, Ist November. ! Sir George C. Buchanan, a consulting engineer of some prominence, makes a startling contribution to the discussion on Empire trad© in a letter to "The Times." He questions whether England is in the position to fulfil the demands of :the Dominions, owing to the relationship at present existing between Capital and Labour. » "As we on bur side," he writes, "must exchange manufactured . goods for foodstuffs or die of starvation, we are in the position of the beggars who cannot be choosers, and one would suppose that every man and woman would be only too glad to do his or her utmost to produce the goods required by the Dominions at moderate price and- in the least possible time. The question of our competency to carry out our part of the bargain and deliver the goods does not seem to have been raised, but is, I suggest, a matter for very serious consideration.

"My firm in its professional capacity has been instrumental in placing considable orders for engineering plant and machinery for use on public works in various parts of the world, and our experience has been that it is, as a rule, impossible to get delivery anywhere near the contract time. ' Looking over our books I find that in the last twelve months orders have been placed for loco•motives and other railway rolling stock, dredging plant, and miscellaneous machinery and plant, but, with few exceptions, the contract time for delivery has. been exceeded by from 50 per cent to 250 per cent. ; "Time is the essence of every contract, and in the case of work being carried out in-the Tropics a delay of three or four months may-mean the loss of the whole of the working season. I am not concerned with the cause of the delay, or whether the fault lies with the employer or tho employee, Capital or Labour; the fact remains that, although there are over a million unemployed people in the country and many works are either closed or working half-time, we were unable to get delivery at contract date for the comparatively small amount of goods mentioned above, and that beinothe case, it is not unreasonable to wonder what the conditions will be if the country really gets busy.

OUR HOUSE IN ORDER. ; "It is a matter of common knowledge that, every time there is even a small revival of trade, or of. a particular trade, Labour troubles intervene, and there is a setback;: the numbers of unemployed go up, and the amount paid out in 'doles' also rapidly, rises. Quito recently I visited a shipyard in the North, which is capable of employing 2500 men; at the time of my visit there were about 200, employed, and the manager informed me that they had on hand orders sufficient'to employ the, whole 2500, but that owing to.the boiler-makers 1 'strike' or. 'lock-out,' the works were paralysed. That is an example that could probably be multiplied many times. Therefore, I submit that our first endeavour should be to put our house in such order that there cannot be any question of our ability to supply what the Dominion* require at a moderate price and in reasonable time. One thing is certain' that if it is impossible for Capital and Labour to settle their disputes without' having resort to these constant 'strikes' I and 'lock-outs,' our country is surely doomed. "In the matter of migration to the Dominions and elsewhere, it is unfortuante that the men we can least spare are those who are in greatest demand in- the Dominions and the United States oi America. I think I am right in saying that our country is pre-eminent in the breeding and training of skilled men, and nowhere else can. be found mechanics with such wide knowledge of the various branches of their trades. We supply them to the world, and although there has always been a certain surplus of work overseas, there is now a. grave danger that the best men, who. are 'fed up' with unemployment, 'strikes,' and 'lock-outs,', will, given the opportunity, leave the country in their thousands, with the result that it will be difficult la maintain our higb atautJord of wuuafactwed gauds,"