EMPIRE COTTON,

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 118, 28 January 1926, Page 3

EMPIRE COTTON,

BRITISH REQUIREMENTS. What is Being Grown. (By J. S. Bainbridge, B.Sc.) The vital importance of cotton in times of war was recognised during the World War by the restrictions placed on its export and the cotton blockade operating round the enemy powers. Vitally important as the question of an adequate supply of this material may be while the God of Mars is ruling the earth, however—an importance recognised by the general public—-its equal importance in times of peace is not so generally conceded. This is due entirely to ignorance of the position, and although in some cases the actual figures quoted in the following paragraphs are not the latest available, this in no way affects the argument. The prosperity of the British Isles is founded and depends on the textile industry. If this were to be paralysed the whole country would be ruined, for without exaggeration it can be said that the life of the country depends upon the continued prosperity of the cotton and other textile industries.

It is only necessary to give three sets of figures to prove this. Our total exports of manufactures during the year 1923 were valued at £580,000,000, to which total textiles contributed £292,000,000, almost exactly 50 per cent. And of this total of £292,000,000 £177,000,000 refers to cotton goods. Much newspaper space is taken up by discussions of the necessity for improving the coal and engineering exports, but if the value of iron, steel and non-ferrous exports, and of everything produced from them were included in one grand total the figures obtained would still be less than half that of the textile exports. Page after page of figures could be produced to prove that the textile industry, by which one may take to mean the cotton industry, is the heart of the country. England is the cotton shop of the world, and it must be perfectly obvious that the cotton industry, with those parts of the engineering, electrical, dye, coal and other industries required to furnish the. mills with machinery, power, colours, light, and so forth, very materially affect the welfare of millions of workers.

It must also be perfectly oby.ous that any factor threatening a restriction or stoppage in the raw cotton materials would have very serious consequences. America (U.S.A.) is at present the main source of supply, but the advisability of making the British Empire self-supporting as regards its staple industry is axiomatic. We shall, therefore, point out briefly why America must be an ever-de-creasing source of supply, discuss the present production of the British Empire, and finally suggest steps which ought to be taken if this self-support-ing position is to be reached within a reasonable space of time. Firstly, as regards America. There can be no doubt that several permanent or long-dated ; factors are here working to produce a continuous and increasing deficit, at any rate, of the long-haired good quality cotton which is required. The population is growing rapidly, so that home consumption is always on the increase. This at the same time does not tend to increase the labour available for cotton production, since the available labour is migrating more and more rapidly to the towns and the industrial north away from the cotton-growing districts. An even more serious factor is the boll-weevil, which now annually destroys 30 to 35 per cent of the American cotton crop, and at present, at any rate, shows no signs of being checked. This reduces the available first quality '.cotton by more than the arithemetical third, because there is an increasing tendency to plant early maturing but shorter staple cotton. Since this variety is less seriously attacked by the pest the percentage of the commercial crop which America (U.S.A.) has herself consumed in recent years has raisen from 36.2 per cent, in 1901-5 to 61 per-cent, in the 1921-22 season, at which rate of increase the United States will ho out of the market in 15 yoars. Normally, Great Britain requires for her own use about 1,600,000,Q001b of raw cotton (say 4,000,000 bales of 4001 b each) about 7% p <s r een t of which comes from t.J )e U.S.A, If the Empire is to ugfiome self-supporting so far as J cotton is concerned, there must therefore be an increased production Within, say, the next ten years, of 3,000,000 bales. Can this be done? The following is a short summary of the present production of the British Empire, including Egypt, which is not, strictly speaking, part of the Emph-e, but in this case may be regarded as such. lAs in most other parts of the Empire, production in Australia is limited by lack of population, cemmuni-

cation and marketing organisation. Production in Queensland is more extensive than elsewhere, but even here it. is estimated that if all farmers at present farming were to take up cotton growing production would be still limited to 50,000 bales. The Australian production in 1922 was 3,000,0001 b of ginned cotton—a drop in the ocean compared with requirements—but one interesting point ought to be noted. In Australia all cotton is grown by white labour, an achievement which lias disproved the old axiom that cheap coloured labour is essential for successful cotton-growing.

In Egypt the production in 1923 was only 512,087,0001 b, of which local consumption is less than 3,0C0,0001b, leaving- the bulk available for export. Production will increase shortly, since the completion of the Sennar Dam and its accompanying canal system has brought 80,000 acres of land under immediate cotton cultivation (1925), and the area may later possibly increase to 150,000 acres. According to Mr. R. Hewison, Director of Agriculture and Forests in the Sudan, the ultimate development possible in the Gezireh is a production of 500,000 bales.

India is easily the biggest cotton producer in the Empire, but unfortunately, in addition to consuming annually herself about 1,000,000,0001 b, the cotton is poor in quality, the yield per acre is low, and five-sixths of that available for export is very short staple cotton, unsuitable for Lancashire requirements. Irrigation systems offer some hope for improvement, but since the acreage cannot be materially increased, owing to food requirements, and the Indian cotton growers are inclined to be very conservative, improvement either in type or quantity is likely to be slow. There will be improvement, of course, but not to such an extent that it will affect the position.

Possibilities in Africa are more hopeful, although the production, measured by world requirements, is still very small. It is, however, increasing fairly rapidly, the Kenya production of 500 bales in 1920-21 having risen to an estimated production in 1924-25 of 9000 to 12,000 bales.

In Nigeria millions of pounds of cotton produced are used on the native looms and do not therefore come on to the world’s market. It has been estimated that the production is probably in the region of 40,000,0001 b, most of which is used locally, but an increasing amount is becoming available for export. Export of 11,445,0001 b in 1920-21 (28,000 bales) has since increased to 40,000 bales. There is a favourable field in Malaya, but other more attractive crops such as rubber at present monopolise attention.

In Nyasaland there is another promising field, but exports in 1920 were

only 914,0001 b. The chief difficulty here, as elsewhere, is lack of transport, and until this is remedied the cotton industry cannot develoD. Malta produced 232,00Q1b in 1924, mainly short staple cotton, not of much use to Britain. Production in 1922-23 was 443,6001 b in St. Vincent, valued at £66,782, all of which came to England. In - Tanganyika production exceeded 10,000 hales in 1923-24, and is likely to reach 15,000 in 1924-25. At present Uganda is very encouraging and produces more cotton than all the new ‘cotton-growing- fields of the Empire combined. The 1920-21 production of 80,000 bales has risen to an estimated figure for 1924-25 of 180,000 to 200,000 bales, and the cotton produced is of good quality. At present cnly about 1,000,0001 b are exported from the Union of South Africa and most of this is short cotton not of much value. There is no reason, however, why the Union of South Africa should not become an important cotton-growing area within the next few years.

It will be obvious from the above that the Empire production of cotton is at present very small compared with the requirements of Lancashire. The possibilities are there, however, and there can be no doubt that the Empire contains cotton lands of sufficient area, theoretically at any rate, to supply us with our 4,000,000 bales. Production in Egypt is limited by the physical conditions, complicated irrigation systems being required (note also that the Irak irrigation scheme should also shortly be developing), and the yield from India is hardly likely to increase owing to the area required for the growing of food. The warm, temperate and semi-tropical re-

gions of the Empire, such as Australia and South Africa, are perhaps of more direct interest, using white labour in preference to coloured. In all parts of the Empire the great drawbacks are lack of labour, lack of. transport and lack of capital. The British Cotton Growing Association, the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, etc., are doing excellent and invaluable work, but unless transport, market and labour organisation can be increased to produce and deal with millions of bales instead of a few hundred thousands progress must be slow, and the cotton independence of the Empire will be a dream of the very distant—and possibly too latefuture.