Wool for Flags

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 237, 7 October 1936, Page 9

Wool for Flags

SHORTAGE IN ENGLAND COMPETITION PROM JAPAN LONDON, Sept. 9. Nearly 2,000,000 Union Jacks and other flags, ranging i'rom the smallest toy to the largest standard, are to be manufactured for use in Britain during the Coronation celebrations, and it is estimated that £1,000,000 worth of flags and bunting will be bought for Coronation displays. These orders are keeping the British manufacturer very busy and very leased. Unfortunately, everything is not as rosy as it might be, for he is hindered by a shortage ot labour and wool, and worried by the importation of Japanese flags for sale at prices below his cost of production. The unprecedented demand for flags has taken many British manufacturers by surprise, and they aro finding that the stocks of wool of the type from which bunting is made are running short. “Never during the last 20 years has there been such a shortage of wool of the quality required," a Bradford wool manufacturer is reported to have said this.

Enterprising Foreigners. "This wool is grown in New Zealand, South America, and, in* small quantities, in Ireland," added the manufacturer, “but the finest is the English wool from long-haired sheep ured chiefly in Lincolnshire. This type ot wool is very suitable for flags, as it is coarse and hard-wearing. All stocic has been practically exhausted and it is impossible to obtain more. The last New Zealand and South American clip were bought mainly by Germany and the United States, who anticipated our Coronation requirements before we did. But there is nothing that can be done about it now. ’’

Another manufacturer said the price of bunting had been raised considerably lately, and was likely to rise still higher. “We bought our stocks of rag material very early,” he slated, “and we shall be able to cope with any demand made upon us. Already the orders we have received have great exceeded our most hopeful expectations. One great hindrance, however, is a general shortage .of labour, as flag-making is a comparatively specialised business.” Cheap Japanese flags. Shortage of labour is also being experienced by manufacturers of small souvenirs which will be on sale at the Coronation. In Birmingham, Manchester and many other towns there is a demand for skilled men and women workers. Manufacturers who are protesting against Japanese competition say that if that country continues to flood the market with cheap flags, over £200,000 will be lost by British manufacturers.

“The Coronation will create the biggest demand for flags in history,” remarked a manufacturer. “It will give the whole of our industry the greatest stimulus it has had for years. \i c ure employing extra labour in our mills, but if the menace of Japanese competition continues a great proportion of the flags we are making will be unsaleable.” The quality of imported flags, he said, was not as good as that of the British article. Colours were not fast and would run after the first rain. X Government’s Assurance.

Representations have already been made by trade delegations and individual firms to the Board of Trade. An assurance was given that the Government would buy only British-made flags, but it was pointed out that the public could not bo compelled to buy British goods. “The real trouble is that the public does not know what it is buying, ’ stated a director of a firm of calico printers. '‘Although every bale of a gross or even a dozen flags is marked as foreign, each flag is not marked separately. Trinkets, flags, bunting and all sorts of mementoes arc sold to people who do not know r , or do not take the trouble to find out, that they are made abroad.”