CHINA’S FUTURE.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 June 1918, Page 7

CHINA’S FUTURE.

< ‘ China, in the future, is to be the world’s greatest customer.” It is with this message (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph”) that Mr. D. E. Ball, the Attorney-General, returns to Sydney after an absence of three and a half months on a visit to Japan and China. ” English firms in the cotton Mr Ball states, “are in many instances abandoning all idea of developing their factories at and are devoting their attention to China. In Shanghai I have been through cotton mills where children of ten years are employed to attend the looms. They came on at six in the morning, and knock off at six in the evening. Their places are then taken by other children who do the next twelve hours shift. The wheels run constantly from January 1 until December 31, save on one day the Chinese New Year. Each child receives up to threepence a day. Knowing that, and realising how similar cheap labour may be utilised in other manufacturing processes, I feel justified in believing that in the future China is going to be a serious menace to the great manufacturing nations. No one could hope to compete with her so long as conditions remain in their present state.”