Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1931. BRITISH INDUSTRY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 7 April 1931, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1931. BRITISH INDUSTRY.

The British Empire Trade Fair, at Buenos Aires, was a novel departure in commercial enterprise. The industries of a country have often been advertised by displays in that country. A few years ago the resources of the Empire were demonstrated at Wembley. The Paris and the Chicago exhibitions are historical. The famous Leipzig Fair is attended by many thousands of foreigners. (Sometimes representatives of two countries collaborate, as in the Anglo-Jap-anese and the Anglo-French exhibitions, held in London before the war. But, although the Government and private interests of Japan and France participated in these, the organisation and direction were exclusively British. At Buenos Aires, however, British captains of industry have gone boldly overseas, co-operating in a drive to secure for their products publicity and purchasers. The Fair has a greater significance than may appear on the surface.

It is a manifestation of a new spirit which is beginning to animate British industry. Last year, in language almost the same, as that used by his father on a similar occasion twenty years previously, the Prince of Wales urged a gathering of members of the London Chamber of Commerce to “wake up” and move with the times. lie suggested that they and their kind were living too much on the memory of past achievements and clinging to obsolete methods. The charge is not new. The British business man has earned, abroad, a high reputation for integrity and fair dealing. ‘ ‘ Word of an Englishman” has become a proverbial saying that is a synonym for trustworthiness. He keeps his bargains with scrupulous fidelity. Orders' are fulfilled and deliveries are made punctually ; his Avares are of excellent quality and are true to sample. This may be admitted, as far as pre-Avar days are concerned, but in the conduct of his transactions he has frequently been handicapped by his failure to adapt himself to changed conditions. His attitude to foreign customers savoured of the “take it or leave it.” He did not trouble to study and meet local requirements. His catalogues and correspondence AA-ere often in English, and his’ quotations in English currency. This conservatism did not greatly matter as

long as fie had a virtual monopoly in certain types of commodities. But it became disastrous Avhen the manufacturing industries of Germany, America and Japan expanded, and AAdien, in America, the possibilities of niass produe-

tion were realised. Britain was now faced by keen and well-equip-ped rivals. There is little room for sentiment in business, and many of those ivlio, had other things been equal, would have bought from Britain, transferred their patronage to others Who were more ready to consult their convenience.