TEXTILE TRADE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 December 1928, Page 9

TEXTILE TRADE.

REASONS FOR SAFEGUARDING. 'WORLD’S CONDITIONS CHANGING. United Pres* -Association —By Electric Teiegrapt Copyright.) (Australian, Press Association.) LONDON, Doc. 17. . The National Associations of Unions of the Textile Trade has issued a report on the reasons why it joined the employers in the application for the safeguarding of the industry. The unions say they think it unreasonable to expect British workmen to ho martyrs of the free trade principle. Seventeen per cent, of the workers in the woollen worsted industry arc wholly or partially unemployed. The unions had to face the problem or allow the industry to languish. “We started out convinced free traders, but realise that the world’s conditions were constantly changing,” says the report. “To make a fetish of the belief was wrong. During the war a large percentage of our textile machinery was used to make khaki. Other nations were thus compelled to produce their own textiles. We feel inclined to ask other nations, whether they also believe free trade the only honest trade. If so, why don’t _ they co-operate m the abolition of tariffs ? “The estimated net imports for the year exceed 40,000,000 square yards, of which 30,000,000 yards would be excluded under safeguarding. We submit that while safeguarding is not the ultimate remedy it will materially relieve the unemployment.”