POLAND AS BUYER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14042, 27 April 1920, Page 5

POLAND AS BUYER.

MORE WOOL .'WANTED., (By E. R. Peacock.) It is only when one travels through : the great centres of the Old -World and • studies the conditions on the spot. that ■ » it is to understand, • the fa bilious'markets which at exist for our produce, and their icapacity for expansion of trade. ,'■' ' Here'is Poland, with its population of about.. 60 "million' (a'hout 12 times us many as the whole of Australia), with its manufacturing industries but poorly.. developed.. It is intensely hostile to Germany,' yet in the' past most of. its manufactured supplies came from that country. Lodz is the principal textilo manufacturing centre in Poland, where about;two-thirds of the. industry is cotton and one-third woollen. Tho.. raw cotton and wool must be got from abroad. The mills have been. partly dismantled, but are working on a reduced i output. English manufacturers are here now arranging for the installation of liew machinery. Americans are selling raw cotton on extended credits, and. establishing banks to deal „■ with the transactions on. outside currency basis. The-Valuta (exchange standard) is a difficulty, with the Polish mark at 600: to the English £l, but .this is-purely fictitioiis on account of the general European economic condition. Alert business people are operating'on a ■ barter basis outside, and not figuring in Polish marks l at all, sending in goods, and! turning-the products into Polish assets. Swiss : merchants have sent in large quantities of manufactures, and with the purchase money are buying properties in Poland, assured of handsome profits later on, or favorable means for carrying on future trade. The British j are said to ■be resorting to the same [methods. A battle royal is in store for the trade I in Russia between Great Britain aris I Germany from the West and Japan, ) from the East. English ; manufacturers ' . I will use, Poland and Polish labor to exploit this market. Manufacturing de-v. velopment on an extbnsive scale is cer-: tain in this country. . '.....' If Australia could quadruple her wool '•" output the whole of it could be absorbed quickly in Central and Eastern Europe, and in return there are vast stores of timber available for export to Australia. Even a few thousand bales of wool' could bo exchanged through;; barter medium for a whole countryside ■ of magnificent forest. The strip of country or corridor is; being opened along the line of the Vistula from Poland to Danzig, which will be the principal port of import into, Poland, and inland transport will be largely by water, while the timber country to .the east is served by tho River Nienian, with its outlet at Me- ' mel. ' - The timbers comprise ex-tensive areas ' of oaks, ash, beech, elms, as well as firs and pines of vast extent.' Li addi-, tion to wool there will be a Dig market _ here for sheepskins, meat, dried fruitsj' and other nroduce. At present enormous quantities of flax grown in Poland are sent to Dundee and Belfast ,for ' manufacturing into linen. ■ - Branches of British factories for I local . .manufacturing are likely to be, 'established in Poland. The Poles have' l I a well-dovelrfped special industry in j leather goods, gloves, boots and luxury articles, It will certainly be well worth 1 while our Australians giving to tho developments in these countries. Language has been a difficulty ill' the, v ,' pa&t, and Germany lias had certain ad-^ v * vantages by doing mqst of her through Jewish agencies, who all speak.{ German and Polish. Tlmt .consideration' \ would not be serious with Australia do-i ■' ' ing the larger trado' in raw products ■ ± and timber. Further, in tho • business* >" t circles of Poland' English is spoken more', - generally than in most other cities in- , Europe, and just now there is a erase-in Warsaw to learn English. "V, (