May In the light of the full findings just reported, of the British Economic Mission on their investigation toto trade in China and the Far East gen members ave to. be heartedly congratulated. ne article of faith which the Mission had was to find a way to give the British vgorkman employment without reducing his standard of living, and this has been tackled honestly, The Mission has not in its observations escaped the: team work of Japanese in their factories and likewise—the readiness of the Japanese worker to supervise more looms. than the Trade Union system permits in Lancashire, and one as to take these factors into serious, consideration when dealing With this matter of competition. The Mission has also doen impressed with a point. which, although a commonplace in Shanghai, may occasion surprise at home that Japanese inns are more leniently treated in regard to the quality of their goods than are British. There fs no doubt about the correctness of this statement. "The Chinese dealer who buys the cloth is prepared for certain discrepancies in Japanese goods as against the original sample, but the British standard has been so scrupulously high for the generations during which there hus been trade with China that there is. insistence quality, or otherwise penalties. The older class of Chines chants will be about the admit that in too many cases these penalties are claimed because the market or exchange: has gone against the purchaser, and that it is by no means the fault of the manufacturer. which calls for them, The effort which the Mission suggests to build up a central yelling organization here important, but for Lancashire goods the question "must be asked how far it is practicable. Only a few years ago a particular line of cloth was placed on the market to compete with a similar Japanese article—this being in the nature of bulk production—but when Shanghai firms, who are in-the habit of supplying Yangtze and northern markets, had ordered their requirements, they found that the market had been flooded with this particular commodity because of sales, to people in' Hankow and 'Tientsin which were not expected here. Anticipating that they would have a reasonable offtake from the Yangtze and. the North, local merchants found that' these markets had already made their own purchases _from Lancashire, and us a. result of the sales that had been stocked and in the final event the cloth was disposed of under the cost of production. Here was a case of a bad selling organization, and it was not the fault of the local merchants but the policy conceived at Home. This must be avoided in fut and there is no doubt that, it can be. Another point is that! at present Chinese d holding off from ordering the: Autumn cargo, knowing neither ito what, the political situation will develop nor how will exchange go. Within a fortnight or'a month when more certainty may. be apparent _in these matters they will be able to obtain their requirements from Japan, whereas it is a question of months to have; shipments of these articl+s from Lancashire, and so the sugge tion of a' central selling 0 ganization, with stocks on hand, which the' Mi i of great impo: tion is the possibility of bringing this about, This is not, however, the full story, for where are the firms to stand who have specialized in certain classes of cloth for years, have still got greatly favoured chops on the market, and are perfectly content to get on with the business they are doing? One of peculi elements about the cotton piece goods situation is this, that in the midst of general depression there is generally to be found one manufacturer whose goods are going into consumption readily, Certain other importers dislike the idea of their particular chops being merged into a central selling agency, already having established a good market in China. Nevertheless with a strong financial backing behind importers generally, it seems possible that rationalization both here and at Home—in cheaper manufacture in the first place and then in the holding of stocks here—would not be beyond the realm of practicable business politics, and from this point of view the work of the should be important.
nted that the Mission can press on those at Home these needs—lower production, costs and the financing of stocks out here—there are infinite possibilities for English goods in a country, settled politically and militarily, when that can be envisaged. Otherwise one of the most' important lines lopment must be in the partially manufactured type of article, which is already making great headway in Shang-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.