JAPANESE COMPETITION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 313, 1 December 1933, Page 2

JAPANESE COMPETITION

CONCERN IN, BRITAIN. STRIKING FIGURES QUOTED. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Received November 30, 12.45 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 29. Striking figures regarding Japanese trade with Britain and the Empire were given during the discussion of a private member’s motion in which Captain A. E: Fuller urged the Government to take steps to minimise Japanese competition, in connection with which nothing adequate had yet been done. Japan’s exports had increased by 96 per cent, in the first six months of 1933. Japan was sending 30,000,000 square yards of cotton to Kenya and Uganda, compared with Britain’s 5,000.000. Japanese bicycles were selling in parts of the Far East for 21s each, electric bulbs at Is 6d a dozen, lead pencils at Is lOd a gross, and fountain pens at 3d each. Japan, in the past twelve years, had subsidised shipping companies to the extent of £18,000,000. Major Proctor said that if Japanese competition were not checked there would be no Lancashire cotton industry left after four years. The whole Empire and Western world were alarmed, because the people’s standard of life was threatened by Japanese competition. Sir Arthur Samuel said that Lancashire had lost five-sevenths of her pre-war export trade chiellv owing to the collapse of the Indian trade, and to Japan’s competition. The chief cause of Japan’s success was lower wages and automatic looms. The Japanese cotton industry was a highly efficient organisation. Lancashire’s was a loose mass of unorganised entities. The only way to recover international trade was by concentration on the reduction of costs. Japan’s subsidies and currency restrictions were illegitimate and her competition must be counteracted. ANGLO-DUTCH STAND. Received November 30. 11.10 a.m. THE HAGUE, Nov. 29. The Federation of British Industries and the Dutch Employers’ Federation are conferring on December 2 with a view to Anglo-Dutch co-operation against Japanese competition in India and Europe.