WOOL AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 114, 31 January 1918, Page 8

WOOL AND WAR

, THE SUBMARINE MENACE HOW BRITISH FIRMS ARE FARING ' LNTERTSTING LETTERS. The services of the head of the welli known English firm/ of R. AValker and , Sons, Leicester, have been secured _by . the British Government in connection . with t':>o handling of wool in certain of its phases. In the course of .a . business letter, that gentleman (Mr. E. AVallcer) writes as follows to, his ! New Zealand representatives on No--1 veraber G:— "The' pesitiou at tho present time is an exceedingly difficult one; in fact, ; that is hardly the right word." The ■ fact is there is such an uncertainty ' about everything that we never know from dav tu day quite what is ex- • pected of u-\ what wo have., got to do, ■ what yarn wo aro going to receive, 1 or what labour we shall have available. There is r.o doubt that as the war goes . on moio and more goods will be dsi manded oi us, and it is generally ac- ; copied, although it is not official, that ' we shall have to clothe the American Army too, a; they have no machinery suitable fot making goods for troops on . activo service. Of course, the Americans, as you know, largely wear thin ' underwear, and are dependent more particularly on the heating of their houses, trains, tramcars, etc., and th j ir fur coats. Thoy are not in the habit of using heavy underwear to the extent that we arc in this country. AVhfii we tell you the avefage per yea i fir the three years ending March 31 1914, for articles of hosiery was 1,308,97' i garments of every description, whereas tho average per year from August, 1914, to July 31, 1917, was 52,765,616 garments, you will seo the terrific difference, and you can imagine what the hosiery manufacturers have been called upon to do. The same remarks apply to cloth, taking the same periods ending March, 1914, the average was 1,039,998 yards, while_ for th" latter period, it was 36,277,933 yards. Regarding flannel, before th; war tho average was 1,000,000 yards: wo now want 47,000,000. Blankets 165,650 used to be the demand everv year,'tho average per year now is 11,708,433 blankets. Big Increases. 'Tou will no doubt have noticed that the Wool Board of Control have advanced their prices of different qualities. The advance, of course, naturally varies, but on some of the popular thifiiys should like to get hold of the pr.ee makes no • difference, because tho Government require all the particular types of tops and yarn. Jn many cases the advance on the tops alone is as muck as 17 per cent. This does not mcar.- 17 per cent, on the yarn, tint is quite another story. Then, tin, everything else on this side is goin.; up tremendously. We are experiencing the greatest difficulty in procuring .such simple things as buttons, paper, string, boards, etc., while the scaicity o c chemicals increases, and such everyday things as soap are very difficult ti obtain. Also, labour is putting in for largely increased advances. At the present ' moment workers are having war bonuses of 2}d. in tne Is.; they have now made application fc 4d. in tho Is. Just imagine how this is going to affect things. Then, again,, under tho Defence of tin. Realm Act,' the Government hii'u a right on all machinery which wdl produce men's underwear of 91b. and upwards: that is to say, if they require goods of this typo wo shall singly have to mako them, and the civilian trade, of course, will suffer to a conesponding extent." , Effect of U-Boat Piracies. Under date December 6, the same authority writes as follows:— "With- regard to the position concerning wool, this is governed chiefly by the submarine menace. The Government, realising the very seriousness of this menace, tackled the whole situation in a thoroughly businesslike spirit. il.t was realised that if we wero to defeat the Germans our shipping must be used to the utmost advantage" Stock, as it were, was taken of the whole situation, endeavour was made to ascertain what shipping was useful and what could be dispensed with. Amongst other things, it was realised that to send boats to Australia to fetch wool from there meant that ships were being used on the longest route and could be used to considerably better advantage by taking short trips, such as America and places of nearer destination, with the result that although there may be any quantity of wool in Australia, New Zealand and other colonies, yo't fSr ihe time being it must remain there. Until October last,- wool has certainly been brought over, but we understand that between now and March and April of next year there will be very little wool brought over. Moreover, stock has been taken of all the wool there is in this country, and the Central Wool Control in Bradford is regulating the amount of wool which can he consumed each month for civil consumption. However, owing to the needs of the Army, whioh, of course, come first, the amount of wool available for civil purposes tends to become less, and for +he, next rationing period, Decembor to March, the amount of wool available has been cut down very considerably. AA'hen this is taken in conjunction with the fact that most spinners aru en-! gaged on £S0 per cent, of Government i work it will be realised what an also- i lute dearth, oue might almost say, ! famine there is of wool. ! "However, when one reads of the prices that wool is fetching in Germany one cannot really say that wool has reached famine pricos, but certainly spinners are able to command almost any price they like. AA r e can, of course, understand our friends in the colonies, looking at pre-war rates, considering that the prices are terribly high, but as we have so often pointed out in these letters if one can only take a broad view of the whole situation, wool 'even to-day is one.of the most relatively cheap of all the raw materials. At the present time in England, butter, tea, sugar, bacon, and indeed many other commodities are almost unobtainable. Cotton is four and ' five times the pre-war standard; almost anything and everything that one can 'touch has risen, and risen enormously, and yet wool that is required in such huge quantities for the Army, and is indeed almost as important as guns and shell, could not be said to have risen to anything like the height that one would have anticipated. It is true that it is perhaps three times tho pie-war rate, but- considering the advance of other commodities this, we think, is relatively extremely moderate. Colonies Short-sighted, "AVo have always considered the colonies, head per' head, to bo more prosperous than this country, but they have been frightened by tho pricos. Buyers seem to be possessed with the idea that a slump will come, that they will bo left with ■ terribly high-priced goods, and .that their losses will be enormous. Our agents in different parts of tho world have told' us from time to tim'o that customers could not pay, but we havo never yet had a letter giving any instance of a buyer who has had the pluck ' to buy, and buy heavily, who has re- > grottod it. Frankly, wo feel that the : colonies havo been short-sighted. AVe ' have had similar instances in this cnun- ; try. On the whole, tho Scotch buyers throughout the war have acted on tho cautions side. They havo been afraid to | put down big orders, or if they have t done so they have put them down with i a good deal of fear and trepidation; s

yet those self-same buyers have, when the season has been in full swing, come down to the market and have been propared to pay almost any price • to. got the goods. In the meantime they have had to pay shillings and shillings per dozen extra, but they have paid it willingly. Cotton in Short Supply. "Tho position of cotton also lias undergone most extraordinary changes - during the last few months. Again the 1 reason for this is the submarine menace F and the fact that cotton cannot be i brought over, with the result • that i prices soar higher every day. and good 1 judges say that certain classes of cot« • ton will bo almost unobtainable in a few 3 months' time. It is, of course, iinpos- ■ sible to tell how long the war will continue. It ceitainly shows no sign ot 3 coming to an abrupt ond, and in our i opinion there can bo no doubt that 3 everything tends to force prices i higher."