WOOL SECRETARIAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23334, 28 October 1937, Page 13

WOOL SECRETARIAT

ESTABLISHED IN LONDON VISIT TO GERMANY I (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Sept. 29. The International Wool Secretariat has established its offices in one of London's most central positions, Bush House, Aldwych. Mr S. Arthur (Dunedin), the New Zealand representative, took over his new duties this week, together with the Australian representative, Dr Clunies Ross, and Mr A. F. Du Plessis (South Africa). The secretariat's time at the moment is being directed towards making contacts with people linterested in the wool publicity andl research scheme. Opportunity is to be taken early next month of travelling to Bradford to meet the leaders of the wool industry there, and also to visit the wool research station at Torridon to investigate the nature and the scope of its research work. Prior to Mr Arthur's arrival from New Zealand, Dr Clunies Ross and Mr A. F. Du Plessis went to Germany, where they made various important

contacts arranged for them by the South African Trade Commissioner in Berlin. Their itinerary was largely planed for them by the technical experts of the Leipzig Woll Kannerei. It included visits to the State material testing laboratory in Berlin, the Prussian Wool Textile High School, and the State Textile Research Institute. The wool combing and spinning plants of the Kammagarnspinnerei, which maintains a very efficient testing laboratory, was also inspected, and a finishing and weaving works, previously devoted to the manufacture of pure wool materials and now employing a larger admixture of artificial fibres, were also seen at Greiz, together with the work of those firms employing large quantities of artificial silk and wool in Crevett. near Cologne. Great interest was taken in the colossal works of the I.G. Farbenindustrie, Wolfen, whose plant has been wholly devoted to the production of artificial wool. Outstanding impressions of the visit are the extensive utilisation of scientific and technical research, not only in relation to natural wool, but no less to artificial substitutes; also the results of such research which have led to artificial fibres becoming a permanent and by no means unimportant feature in the woollen textile industry of Germany. Dr Clunies Ross and Mr Du Plessis said that it was satisfactory to find that, in spite oi the great advance

made in the importance of artificial substitutes,'Germany was still anxious to secure greater supplies of natural wool. The problem of how such additional supplies should be made available was obviously one worthy of serious attention, otherwise it was to be feared that German consumption of natural wools would be seriously and permanently decreased.