GREAT BRITAIN WAKES UP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17982, 26 December 1918, Page 6

GREAT BRITAIN WAKES UP.

TRABE COMPETITION ACTIVE. Before the the United Kingdom relied on Continental countries, particularly Germany and Austria, for many commodities which are now being manufactured in quantities in Great Britain. These two countries possessed a monopoly in numerous lines of manufactured products. They will no longer do so. New industries have hcen established, existing industries have been enlarged,! and it is confidently anticipated that under ordinary trading conditions Groat Britain will be able to hold her own in industrial operations, which wero previously mainly confined to countries from which the particular goods had to be imported- .. A list of these new, or enlarged, industries has been compiled by the Board of Trade, London. Prior to the war comparatively few British firms manufactured women's hand-bags and other similar fancy goods. The industry is now firmly established, and the National Leather Goods Manufacturers' Association, formed in June, 191(3, has now a membership of 200. Fancy nickel and brass goods wero largely in the hands of a German linn, which employed thousands of workers. These goods are now being manufactured in the United Kingdom at prices competitive with the former imported articles. Plants havo been laid down lor the production of machine-filled brushes, and artists' brushes, of which Germany had the monopoly, are being produced on an extensive scale. In celluloid and other buttons, Austria and Germany dominated the market. These are now being made in Great Britain. Gramophone motor needies and sound boxes, almost entirely imported from Germany and Switzerland, are now being produced. In the making of typewriter accessories rapid progress is recorded. Embossed wall pockets will no longer be a German monopoly. In textiles the United Kingdom is* now produeiug practically every class of woven goods. Iu many classes of manufactures, such as glove fabric, moqucttes, ties, tapestries, caps and cotton fabric gloves, manufacture has been extensively developed, and the same remark applies to certain lands of hardware goods. A considerable effort has been made to regain the trade in toys. Largo numbers of firms have begun to manufacture these, some employing more than 500 hands. Of pianoforte accessories, 60 per cent of the actions used by manufacturers in the Unite/] Kingdom were imported from Germany.' There are plow nine firms producing these accessories.

One of the most important new industries from a national point of view is chemical porcelain and glassware. Before the war the United Kingdom depended entirely on foreign sources of supply, mainly German. Firms are now producing these goods of an excellent quality. A marked increase in the hulk of aniline dyes has taken place, and the. number of these dyes had been added to. In synthetic dn'" s - a new industry, most of the more frequently used remedies, are now being made. These examples of British enterprise, brought about whon trade relations with the continent of Europe weiy cither stopped or much interfered with, are taken from a fairly long list, and indicate that determined efforts are being made to render the United Kingdom independent of supolies- from abroad, especially from Germany and Austria.