MENACE TO WOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 8

MENACE TO WOOL

FIBRE SUBSTITUTES

AUSTRALIAN'S DECLARATION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, August 26. "A positive menace to pure wool and increasing enormously in production." This view of woollen substitutes now being made in Germany was expressed by Mr. J. P. Abbott, grazier and vice-president of the Australian Wool Board on his return to Australia. Everything possible should be done by Governments and producers to prevent the displacement of pure wool by these substitutes, he said, mentioning a visit to Germany, where he had inspected factories devoted to the manufacture of wool fibres. He was astounded at the development of the industry and the improvement in synthetic materials during the last 12 months. Mr. Abbott said that Germany, Japan, and Italy were concentrating on. the manufacture of substitutes. France was also establishing factories, America was mixing fibres with wool, and in the heart of Bradford he had seen a factory established to demonstrate to manufacturers how to spin fibre mixtures on standard woollen machinery. Despite this development he had been assured that Germany was anxious to take Australian wool on a basis of reciprocal trade. Mr. Abbott said that the international wool secretariat established in London ten months ago to combat the competition from fibres had made plans for publicity and research work in Britain, Europe, and America for the next twelve months. Big sums would be spent in those fields. The Wool Industry Research Association was concentrating on finding new uses for wool and new; woollen fabrics, and recently had invented a hew principle which prevented wool from shrinking i when washed.