Big Increase in Empire Grown Cotton in Last Seven Years London, Apr. 27.
The House of Commons has passed the Cotton Industry Bill prolonging for a period of five years the operation of the Cotton Industry Act, but reducing from si: ence to three-pence the levy imposed under the Act on the sale of every bale of raw cotton for the purposes of the Empire Cotton-Growing Corporation.
The mover of the second reading of the Bill stated that in seven years cotton produced within the British Empire, excluding India, had increased from 100,000 bales to 427,000 bales a year and that three-quarters of the increased prod tion was most suitable for uso in the Lancashire mills.
'A Labour Member, Mr. Johnston, complained that the Japanese were securing a large part of the cotton grown in Uganda, which was sent to Japan in steamers Heavily subsidized by the Japanese Govern ment and then taken back to East Africa in the form of cotton-goods.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.