A serious shortage of raw cotton threatens to close every spinning mill in Manchoukuo within two months, according to a report received here by the usually reliable newspaper Clothing the 40 million people of the area for the remainder of the year may become almost impossible, he newspaper warned.
The situation arises from the fact that Manchoukuo was expected to receive approximately 30 per cent. of its raw cotton from North and Central China but a bad crop last year curtailed the amount available. Furthermore a large part of the cotton grown in Manchoukuo was shipped to Japan while importation from third countries is difficult because of lack of foreign exchange.
As a result of these factors much of the cotton that was on hand as a reserve for the next year has already been used. According to the "Asahi," unless the Manchoukuo concerns can receive additional supplies immediately from stocks in Shanghai and Hankow, the country's 480,000 spindles will have to stop operation by the end of March or early in April Since eight of the 11 firms are direct subsidiaries of Japanese con-verns, efforts are being made for the parent groups to supply cotton to the Manchoukuo companies. Other suggested methods of alleviating the Situation included securing cotton through Japanese companies in Shanghai which have foreign exchange and bartering coal to Japan in exchange for sufficient cotton to carry on until next Autumn when the present crop will be available—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.