BRITISH TRADE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 124, 29 April 1925, Page 5

BRITISH TRADE

STRANGLED BY FOREIGN COMPETITION. AIDED BY DOLE SYSTEM. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received Aoril 29, 10.15 a.m. ‘SYDNEY, April 29. Mr Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association, has arrived at Sydney en route to New Zealand after a world tour. He says that trade in England is being strangled by foreign competition, aided by the Government dole. Important and old-established industries are failing, and foreign countries, with Jow wages and freedom from strikes, are capturing the world’s trade. The competition from which British manufacturers are suffering is so fierce that they have found themselves engaged in a hopeless fight. Once the Staffordshire potteries were able to compete against all foreign manufacturers, but to-day these famous works are languishing because of the invasion of the British market by Czechoslovakia, whose manufacturers are landing cups and saucers in Britain and retailing them at 4s 9d per dozen, while the lowest price ut which the British manufacturer could sell was 8s per dozen wholesale. Other industries were in a similar position. Since the settlement of the Ruhr difficulty Germany and France had boon underselling the British mineowner by 5s per ton, and the result was that there were 100,000 miners unemployed in the United Kingdom. Holland had captured the market for electrical goods. When industrial troubles arose over a reduction in wages and longer hours the employers shut down the works and the workmen accepted half a loaf as better than no bread.

The conditions in England had reached such a desperate stage that British manufacturers were being compelled to establish works and factories in other European countries. An English company in Spain landed slates in England at £l2 10s per thousand, whereas some Home manufacturers had to sell at £l7 ss.

Referring to the wool trade, Mr Spencer expressed the opinion that the enormous prices that wool is fetching could not be maintained. A new fabric was being manufactured in England, Spain and Italy, one of the constiuents of which was wood pulp, the other essential element being wool and cotton. The volume of manufacture was increasing rapidly. The effect of the substitution of cotton and wood pulp in the material must in time operate against the prevailing high price of wool. Manufacturing industries generally in Italy were in a flourishing condition owing to their ability to undersell Britain and successfully compete in other countries. It seemed that the British on the dole system liud lost the art of working..—Press Association. REVIVING INDUSTRY. STEPS TAKEN IN BRITAIN. LONDON, April 26. Tho seriousness of the industrial stagnation, largely due to foreign competition, is reflected in the decision of the shipbuilding unions to join the employers in investigating means of reviving the industry. Tho miners are holding a national conference at Blackpool on 30th May, and will receive the report of the employers and the men’s committee on steps to revive the industry. The same meeting will discuss a proposal to restore the “Triple Alliance.”— A. and N.Z. cable.