MANCHURIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 253, 22 September 1933, Page 8

MANCHURIA

A WOOL EXPERIMENT Mr A. Ingle Hall writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:—News of the Japanese 18-year plan to develop the Manchurian wool industry is of considerable interest to Australia, not because it augers the ultimate exclusion of our wool from the Japanese market, but because the success of the project may add another competitor for international trade in the commodity on which the wealth of Australia largely depends, and also because such a largescale scientific experiment, in primary production may furnish valuable knowledge by which our own industry may be improved. Suggestions that the Japanese aim is to become independent of foreign supplies of raw' materials ma.y be true, but consideration of the facts show's the achievement of that objective to be a remote possibility, and the international benefits of the scheme should far outweigh its disadvantages. Japan is at present one of the best customers for our wool, and evinces a marked preference for the high quality' of our product To improve her trade balance Japan would like to reduce her imports of raw materials, and the Manchurian plan is a move towards that end, but even if successful, and there is every reason to believe the project will succeed, it should have no important effects on our wool sales to Japan for many years to come. WIDE PASTURE LANDS. Despite extremes of climate, Manchuria and Mongolia include w'ide pasture lands eminently suited to sheepraising, and an abundance of labour traditionally adapted to pastoral pursuits. The area is also centrally situated between the Soviet, China and Japan, all countries with large populations and rapidly developing textile industries demanding raw materials. Horse-breeding has been the staple industry of the country from early times, and the Chinese and nomadic Mongolians excelled in the handling of horses and cattle. Large nerds of these and pigs exist in the country to-da.y, but sheep-raising has fallen far behind developments in other lands. Reared primarily for food, the Mongoliansheep have a coarse w'ool suited only for mixing with finer fibres or for weaving into carpets and other rough fabrics used by the native population. The nomads’ flocks were not extensive, and had degenerated in quality w'hen Japanese experiments in cross breeding were introduced, so that although these experiments indicate the possibility of satisfactory development, the task •of building up large flocks of superior strain must be a long and costly one. SHEEP STATISTICS. According to statistics compiled by the South Manchurian Railway Company, there were only 2,640,560 sheep in Mukden, Kirin and Amur provinces in 1930, and another 2,000,000 in Eastern Inner Mongolia. The more recently' incorporated Province of Jehol includes additional pasture lands and flocks, though the total number of sheep in the w'hole area is probably not more than 5,000,000. Of the increase a considerable number are killed each year for food. Japanese research farms established at Dairen and along the railway zone have succeeded in crossing high-class imported Merino breeds w'ith the native Mongolian sheep to produce a fixed cross, yielding fleeces of better weight and quality, but the experiments have not advanced beyond the scientific stage to date. Distribution of improved stock was begun in 1924, but by 1929 only 1156 of the new strain had been distributed. From such small beginnings, the whole of the 18 years prescribed under the plan will be required to establish an industry with any serious effect on international markets, and wool-consuming populations will be considerably augmented by that time. If the existing rate of migration into Manchuria is maintained, the local population will exceed 50,000,000 in 18 years’ time, and the population of Japan itself will be much greater than it is to-day. It seems unlikely that the wool industry in Manchuria will increase beyond the requirements of the growing population, and that there will be little surplus for disposal on world markets, or to satisfy the domestic market in Japan. FACTORIES TO COME.

, Like Australia, Alanchuria imports most of its manufactured - woollen goods, but this position is likely to be reversed. Now that the country is under Japanese control, it is probable that Japanese investors will take advantage of the cheaper Chinese labour and other available industrial requisites to establish factories in Manchuria. A Sino-Japanese weaving industry was established at Alukden in 1918, but the plant was damaged by fire in 1924, and the venture has been handicapped by the disturbed conditions prevailing in the country since. With peace and settled government, secondary w'oollen industries located in the centre of areas providing all the necessary raw materials offer an attractive field for investment, and it will be surprising if development does not follow these lines as soon as the quality and quantity of the Manchurian clip are improved to meet the factories’ requirements. In this eventuality Japanese factories will still depend on foreign imports for raw material, so that the 18-year plan is not a project to occasion Australian pastoralists any grave alarm. The main interest in the plan centres in the nature, of the scheme itself. Practical details are not yet available, but the general tendency of Japanese development in Alanchuria has been along the lines of indirect State control. Direct State ownership would not be politic because Alanchuria is nominally an independent sovereign State, but the Japanese Government is a big investor in the South Manchurian Railway Company, whose, activities include industrial and agricultural development. Pastoral research is carried out on its model farms, and they have been responsible for the distribution of improved flocks. Tlie plan will consequently probably involve the development of the industry by large farms, owned and controlled by the S.M.R., supplied with flocks from its research farms, and employing Chinese and Mongolian labour. The whole industry will be in effect a huge practical laboratory for scientific development of primary production. The small research farms in Manchuria are highly efficient, and their staffs of experts have done excellent work in recent years. With the added scope and backing that the plan provides they may be expected to evolve improvements in the technique of scientific farming, from which Australia should benefit in common with the other wool-producing countries of the world.