TOWN FACES RUIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17096, 31 October 1929, Page 9

TOWN FACES RUIN

TRADE IS LOST DUMPING BY EUROPEANS SUBSIDISED GERMAN IMPORTS LONDON. Sept. 28. Ruin faces a town of 30,000 inhabitants in Wales, because an iron and steel company, its chief- industry, is compelled to close down its plant. Eleven thousand men, 6000 of them miners in Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, where the plant is situated, will be unemployed. Rt. Hon. J. H. Thomas, Lord Privy Seal, has intervened in the hope of prevent line; a shut-down, hut the heads of the Ebbw Vale Co. say that unless the Government protects hv tariffs the British iron and steel industry, production can not go on. ! FOREIGN STEEL IS DUMPED IN BRITAIN Mr. S. D. Morris, chairman of the Ebbw Vale Chamber of Trade, and a free trader, says that the dumping ot foreign steel into Britain is the cause of the disaster to the town, and it is absurd that silk stockings should be pro- | tected by customs duties, hut steel, a, | basic industry, should not. > . Announcement of the company s in-. ! tention to close conies on top of an n>i terview between Mr. Thomas and ( the j National Federation of Iron and Steel ' Manufacturers, in the course of which he urged them to make greater efforts ■ to capture the Canadian market for British iron and steel poducts. ! Sir Frederick Mills, managing director of the company, says it is impossible for them to continue in business under present- conditions. Sir Frederick wants a tariff against those European countries, who, by cheap labor and long working hours, menace British industries, and he is appealing to labor to ensure a proper standard of living in Britain by enforcing such a, tariff. GRAIN ELEVATORS CHOKED Liverpool’s grain elevators are bursting with Argentine wheat. So large have been the importations of late, coupled with important cargoes of maize, that the port and docks hoard have been obliged to make emergency provisions for storage. . . More wheat has been arriving from the River'.Plate during September than in any single month for 30 years past. The total exceeds a. million quarters. As there is little 'demand from the Continent for Argentine wheat, supplies liavo accumulated. Millers who will ultimately take the wheat can not use it for months to come. FARMERS ANGRY AT GERMAN WHEAT IMPORTS Meanwhile, farmers are angry at the continued importations of the subsidised German wheat'pouring into Britain and I ceping down the price of the English product.'' The council of the National Farmers’ Union ha's issued a protest against the inflow which has had the. effect of bringing prices down from 50s n< the beginning; of the season to 43s at present-.’ German wheat receives what h in effect a bounty from the German Government, and while all wheat entering Germany is taxed. Britain can not tax German imports because of existing commercial treaties. COMPLAINTS FOLLOW BANK RATE j INCREASE j Manufacturers are likewise complaiiii ing against the increase in the Bank of England rate, although many recognise that it was inevitable. . Meanwhile, the Daily Herald, inspired by Right Hon. Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is demanding an inquiry into the whole nation s ; credit resources, while the Daily Express is denouncing the governors of the Bank of England for the rise in the bank rate, emphasising how few of them have any industrial interests, most of them being financiers engaged in international finance, and suggests that they are therefore indifferent to the manufacturers and traders of Britain. Thus file Government is being forced on one hand to think in terms of tariffs and on the other hand, if it, is going to get anywhere in conquering unem-ployment,-’it must consider the effect a hanking policy has on the nation s industrial life. NEW YORK’S DRAIN CAUSES HIGH RATES New York’s drain of money to support its speculation boom is the chief cause why industry must now pay high rates for' the monev if needs to carry on business. This 'is the conclusion of the Times editorially to-dav\ | -Money has commanded high rates in • Now York because speculators cbuld I make enormous profits and this has m--1 duced a constant flow from London. , Joined with high rates in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, borrowing has been centred in London, whose money market has been indulging in lending far bevond its capacity. The Bank of England has therefore been obliged to raise its rate for • advances so as to stop the export of capital from Britain that was threatening to deprive trade and industry, of the .credit supplies they at present enjoy. ! Whether the raising of the. rate will ■ he effective and bring back gold to London. the Times does not. say, but m- ' sists that there is no other remedy to :be supplied. It adds the warning that. if the round sterling had heeti allowed , to stand at a. discount much longer reI suits would have been harmful L> Brit- \ ish prestige. It would have given “the appearance of a flight from the pound, ami would have diminished foreign confidence in the stability of this country.