RACE FOR MARKETS

Evening Star, Issue 19559, 18 May 1927, Page 3

RACE FOR MARKETS

TO-DAY'S WORLD HAPPENINGS LESSONS FDR BRITISH EMPIRE Mr W. S. Crawford, a member of the Empire Marketing Board, who has just (returned from a visit to the Leipzig Fair and a business tour_ of Central Europe, told a ‘Sunday Times’ representative recently:— “We need a new national slogan. I have been convinced of this by my experiences in Central Europe, where, in the last few weeks, I have travelled and discussed the future of the world’s markets with business men:of all nationalities. The slogan I would give is: ‘Sell British goods; sell, and search for markets.’ There are many slogans about at present, and yet in all this babel of voices urging ns hither and thither it is strange that we have no phrase to express what is by far the most urgent need. “ We require at this critical stage of our national fortunes, above all else, to be impressed with the need for finding new markets. Tho success of a team depends upon the spirit animating it as a whole, for in great endeavors it is team work that counts. As a nation we ought to be a team, and the spirit behind us should be a single-hearted resolve to ‘ Sell British goods.’ “If we are to prosper we must go out into the world and find out what the world wants and supply_ it. The Leipzig Fair is a useful fillip in that need, and the impression loft on my mind as a result of my visit there is that all the omens arc in our favor.

“We have years of inherited skill in industry behind us. We have a reputation for commercial integrity that made me proud to be a British subject when I talked to foreign business men. But we are falling behind in the race for markets, and unless we search for new markets in ten years’ time we shall be a beaten nation industrially. Our rivals are creeping slowly ahead of us in Europe and in South America, to give two tremendous examples. An important factor in the situation is that they are doing this just when the Continent is at last beginning to recover its purchasing power. Yet. were I a pessimist, I should have been greatly encouraged by the fact that everywhere people wanted in many lines or goods the British product against all others. In textiles, sports goods, and, curiously enough, in toys, I found this to be the case.”

Mr Crawford en remedies for the threatened deterioration in our position, and said: — “ Our manufacturers must make a personal study of foreign markets. They must visit, not once, but several times, their customers abroad, for conditions change, and what might have sold well yesterday may be a drug on the market to-day. Another thing British manufacturers, to be successful, must avoid, and that is the employment of foreign agents. We must aim at bringing our wares to the notice of foreign buyers as skilfully and resolutely as we do in the case of the home buyers. That is, we must advertise in every nation where we believe we can profitably do business. ‘‘ Pessimists who tell me that the Empire’s day is over fill me with scorn. Wo are stronger than we have ever been, and stronger than any of our rivals, including America, but there is no doubt that we must wake up to our own strength and make the most of it. Despite signs of German recovery ,_ I found everything ripe for rapid British development of European trade. _ The Leipzig Fair itself showed that this was generally recognised. “It was a matter of some disappointjnent to me not to find the British Exn-

piro more extensively represented. Besides England, India was tho only representative displaying her goods, and I am told by those at the fair that there were many inquiries and considerable business transacted. It is such opportunities as the Leipzig Fair that should be embraced for Empire development and for selling Empire products. No one can say that British exports are not wanted in Europe, for what are the facts? “ Of coal 60 per cent, goes to Europe; cotton yarn, 80 per cent, goes to Europe; woollen yarn, 67 per cent, goes to Europe; tinned plate, 40 per cent, goes to Europe; rubber manufactures, 40 per cent, goes to Europe; varnish, over SO per cent, goes to Europe. “This question of displaying and advertising British products is one which should awaken the national conscience. At present 475,000,000 people in Europe are each spending only 12s Id on British goods, whereas less than 6,000,000 people in Australia are each spending over £lO on British goods.”