Following up the remarks I made at our last meeting regarding child labour, T desire to take this oppor:- unity of stating that your general managers propose to support. the recommendations of the child Inbour Commission at the next meeting of ratepayers, With regard to. the outlook, cannot do better than repeat the marks I made a year ago th am not optimistic ubout the near future, but sivan peace and good order in the land and reasonably cheap cotton, T have not a doubt mind that the cotton, mill industry will again flourish,"
With your permission, I will now briefly review the causes, as they appear to me, why. industry han laboured under such dificult. and sometimes impossible conditions luring the past two years.
The Eternal Civil Strife The primary evil ix undoubtedly the continued state of chaos throughout pretty well the whole of China, and we may well pay u tribute the courage and pertinacity of the Chinese merchants, who, despite innumerable drawbacks inthe shape of illegal taxation, banditry and civil warfare, continue to trade. Their inducement to do so is probably large profits on transactions which go through without great ficulty, and which probably more than make up for losses on goods that may be held up for week: stolen or lost. This, of course, Is the steady growth use the consumer haa to pay a high price for his requirements, and in turn results in what T would term overproduction.
The boom years of 1921" "naturally led large additions to spindles and looms in China and" production outstripped consumption "with the unfortunate outcome that manu= facturers are frequently willing to accept non-paying prices, in order to keep their mills at work, Over-production Only Apparent 1 do not wish you to go away with the iden that there are really' too many spindles and looms in China—ithe apparent over-production doubt be equalized directly: Chins enjoys peace, and if the government would take steps to foster the industry by reducing taxation, T predict that more mills will be pro-Jected without dela One of the outstanding features of the trade of Shanghai during the past year has been the increase in the export of locally-made yarn and cloth to the Straits, India and even as far as Exypt and Torkey—need-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.