JAPANESE TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21983, 19 June 1933, Page 14

JAPANESE TRADE

ECONOMIC CONQUESTS

NEW ZE ALANDER'S WARNING

(From Our .Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 12.

Mr L. G. Cummins, of Wellington, who hag been visiting Manchester for the first time, warns the people of Lancashire ot their Japanese rivals. The Daily Dispatch reports him as saying:' . .-■" The Japanese are capturing the British colonies. Make no mistake about that. Immediate action will have to be taken if Lancashire is not to lose all her markets in the dominions. Japan is swamping the colonies with 'sweated goods with .which Lancashire cannot hope to compete. ~'„-,''■' ', . " During 1932," he said, "Japan dumped into New Zealand 13 times the quantity of rayon tissues she exported there in 1930. They have pushed Lancashire literally off the map in these lines. They started with cheap sntins and duck, but now they are coming into the field for velveteens, for which Lancashire has always been famous, and for the higherpriced articles. "If Lancashire's trade is to be saved, she must be. made to realise what she is up against. She is up against a clever and wily people who intend to obtain the commercial domination of the world. "A few years ago they could not dye a piece of cloth properly. To-day they can compete with anybody, and their methods are constantly improving. Every month sees a substantial increase in the volume of Japanese exports into New Zealand EMPIRE TARIFF WALL. "New Zealand is thoroughly alarmed, for she wishes to keep the market for the Empire, which in turn is the best market for her" agricultural produce. "We representatives have formed an association, whose chief object is to fight the Japanese invasion. It cannot be done by cutting production costs, for no white man can be persuaded to work for a shilling a day,.which is what many Japanese textile operatives are getting. Nor can the threat be met by any reorganisation of marketing methods. Lancashire's goods are sound, and there is nothing wroiiif with her method of selling them. "The only possible way of averting the danger—and it must be done 60011, or it will be too late —is to ring the Umpire with a tariff wall. Japanese goods must be kept out by dumping duties, for a mere 15 per cent, preference means nothing to people who can sell at a quarter of the fair English price." The situation in other parts of the Empire was the same as in Now Zealand "On the way to England T made particular inquiries at Panama and Jamaica." said Mr .Cummins. "I found them literally swamped with cheap Japanese textiles. Had the goods which Japan is dumping iuto the colonies been ordered from Lancashire, every one of your mills would have been working. "Japanese woollens and pottery, and many other products, too, were ousting British goods, " Bradford will have to fall into line with Lancashire's campaign sooner or later." said Mr Cummins, " and the Potteries, too. The menace of Japan threatens the existence of them all."