IMPORTS OF WOOL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21945, 13 February 1946, Page 8

IMPORTS OF WOOL

BRITISH FIRMS ACTIVE

CONTROL TRADE CEASING SALES POSSIBLE THIS YEAR (Special Correspondent.) (10 a.m.) LONDON. Feb. 12. There is reason to believe that the British wool firms are making good use of the new facilities which allow them to begin to import Dominion wool without limit on the individual quantities which ruled until recently. It is clear that the Wool Control plans to transfer its trading activities to wool merchants and topmakers as soon as the latter can fully undeitake them and that the immediate need is for private firms to build up stocks of wool to enable them adequately to supply the mills when the Control ceases to function as a seller of raw material. From now onwards the Contiol will ;oulv to the industry only such margin's of raw material and tops as private owners are not >< Jt ‘ provide and. as soo,n as the lattecan cater for the full needs of lli e industry, the Control will presumably end its’trading activities. Private Buying Advocated The Control urges the wool firms that buying for private import shou d be resumed at the earliest poss.bW opportunity and maintained on a substantial scale, especially against the Wool Control priorities. The future wool importation into Britain will be by license, but tne firms already qualified to deal in wool me urged to proceed with their impelling arrangements without waiting for this formality in order that supplies may be coming forward with the least possible delay. It is explained that certain wools reserved in the Dominions for consumption in the United Kingdom maybe obtained against special peimits, but such wools may not be exported. Early Resumption of Auctions Traders discuss the possibility that wool auctions may be resumed later this year. Beyond the fact that the Dominions wool conference in London last year pledged the earliest practicable return to aufctions, there is no official news, but there is a somewhat significant reference in the official instruction to British spinners and manufacturers. This points out that when the wool auctions are resumed it will no longer be possible to pay a rebate on Dominion wool used in goods for the British public—the arrangement under which the United Kingdom authorities subsidise the cost of clothing to the extent of the increase in the price paid by Britain for Dominion wool a few years ago and it is announced this rebate will cease *9 be paid at the end of June. Coupled with the fact that Australia and New Zealand have declared in favour of resumed wool auctions in the wool year beginning in July this intimation is interpreted as suggesting that the authorities hope to institute wool auctions in Britain as well as in the Dominions some time this year. It is. assumed that the joint organisation for Dominion wool disposals will function before the auctions resume and the British personnel for this body have yet to be announced.