TENSE TRADE RIVALRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19217, 5 January 1926, Page 9

TENSE TRADE RIVALRY.

RUBBER AND COFFEE WAR. AMERICAN ECONOMY CAMPAIGN. WASHINGTON. Dee. 23. Referring to the proposed investigation of rubber, coffee, and wood pulp prices by a Committee of Congress, the Secretary for Commerce, Mr. H. C. Hoover, said: "Nearly £340,000,000 a year is being exacted from the American public by the British East Indian rubber combination. It was understood that Is sjd had been fixed as a fair rate, but the price has now gone to three times that amount. I can promise drastic action to economise rubber and kindred materials if something to improve the price situation is not done." Mr-. Hoover has appealed to every motorist, every garage and service operator, to carefully use and patch his tyres so that tho country's demand shall immediately drop 25 per cent. In short, Mr. Hoover wants America to start a tyre strike. With tyres, like clothes, he says, a patch in time saves nine. REVERSE FOR MR. HOOVER. BRITISH FINANCE FOR BRAZIL. NEW YORK. Dec '23. Mr. Hoover's drive for smashing the prices of rubber and other commodities which America does not control, received a check When the Brazilian coffee dealers succeeded in obtaining British backing to finance their crops, whose sale Americans have been trying to force. Sao Paulo borrowed £10,000,000 from London bankers, having been refused the usual accommodation in America for obvious reasons. Mr. Hoover followed tho receipt of this news with the statement: "Americans must defend themselves against the trade war that is being made upon us. American buyers should combine for emergency action against foreign monopolies." COMMENT IN LONDON. GRAIN PRICES AND RUBBER. LONDON. Dec. 23. The Morning Post suggests, " Let us tell Mr. Hoover quite frankly that if we, like he in 1919, had tried, by limitation of sowing, to raise the price of corn to starving Europe, we should not have the face to complain of Britain s limitation of rubber production."