ULSTER INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 20

ULSTER INDUSTRY

I DISPELLING PESSIMISM. I

SOUND HEART OF TRADE.

(By the Right Hon. J. Milne Barbour, D.L.M.P., Minister of Commerce of Northern Ireland.) I am glad to know that the "Evening Post" is co-operating in a patriotic effort to help in dispelling the somewhat pessimistic note that has .been heard of late respecting the commercial and industrial position of the Mother Country.

It is true that, like the other countries of the Old World, we have been suffering fiom the effects of post-war depression, but surely tho fact that we have emerged successfully from the menace of a general strike, which sought to lay a paralysing hand on the prosperity of the nation, is of itself an indication that at heart Britain is sound and healthy. That applies in special measure to Ulster, wheh, as an integral part of tho Empiz'e, possessing some of the largest industries of their kind in the whole world, is prepared to play her part in the restoration of the Empire's trade and to assist the Mother Country in emerging successfully from her difficulties. The main exports of Ulster to New Zealand consist of the world-renowned products of our linen factories, and this is only as it should be, seeing that Ulster is the main centre of the world's linen products. s In these days, when foreign competition is so keen, I am afraid it is sometimes forgotten by the purchasers of linen commodities that the linen industry of Ulster is solely financed and operated by British subjects. To our fellow-citizens across the .eas this is. I think, a point worth remembering when they are confronted by the choice between a foreign article and one manufactured in the Old Country. The obverse side of this argument we ourselves have been putting into practice by insisting on the purchase of Em-pire-grown and Empire-produced goods ii preference to those of foreign origin. By each of us helping the other in this way we can hasten on the day when the commercial pre-eminence of the British Empire is once more restored to its pride of place, and in that endeavour Ulster is prepared to do her share.

Evidence is accumulating of the advantages gained by the Continental coalowners —particularly those of the Ruhr —through the deplorable closure of tho British pits. Nearly 500,000 tons of Kuhr coal are now passing through Rotterdam weekly, where, nearly five times as niany ships are now being bunkered as in April. The German exporters are making contracts, in many instances for long terms, with former consumers of United Kingdom coal in Belgium, France, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, Italy and South America.,