LAST OPPORTUNITIES OF THE MOTOR
TRADE.
BRITAIN'S FAILURE TO EXPORT: "A FREE TRADER'S OPINION.
WHY NOT DESIGN A CAR TO SELL ABROAD?
Should the motor trado put more horse-power into its efforts" to capture trade abroad',
The failure to export British cars on any large scale is one of the most outstanding facts of to-day, and in the trade survey which he is conducting for the News Chronicle Mr. A. J-Cum- mings investigates the cause and the remedy,
One of the great now industries is the motor car trade, the develop ment of which in this country is baropored" or encouraged, according to conflicting views, by the fact that it enjoys under the McKenna duties a measure of Protection.
The conclusions about the motor industry from the tariff, point of view were well summarised in a recent analysis by Mr. Comyns Carr, in which he observed that it wasan accident" that the in- dustry is protected by a tariff and
scheme..
H
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1931.
SPARKS
FROM THE PLUGS
this country), said more than a year ago that motor-cars were not being sold in Great Britain with the same vision, energy, and re- source as in America."
That criticism, he added, applied with even greater force to British sales in other parts of the Empire and outside it. In à recent world tour he had been struck by the ah- sence of British cars and the lack of enterprise shown by British manufacturers i
This kind of criticism is exceed.
to a large extent outside the British Empire.
They talk of mass production. But unes production follows the demand. It doesn't create it. You must design a car which commands
wide appeal.
vantage to us in our industrial ad- vance, now the absence of water power is a misfortune.
Motor cars aro more heavily taxed in this country. It would be all to the good if part of the tax were taken off cars and put on horse tralle instead.
Horse traffic in our great towns
said, " to cut wages down. My firm pays in this, country, a minimum
in this, e wages (which we have adjusted to the cost of living) or 2. 3d, an hour-that is to say, £4 a week for a 40-hour week. I believe in good, straight weges not in picoswork and other artificial incentives,
Inak him for his view briefly on
"MOTOR CARS BLESSED BY CANON
CHRISTIANS DO NOT NEED
MASCOTS
velen parked outside the Church of A long line of motor care and St. Michael Paternoster, in College,
topher, the patron Saint of travel- street, EC, were blessed in cele bration of the Feast of St. Chris
Ho to convinced that the Me Kenna duties have been a hind rance rather than a help to that great expansion of which I believe
America to-day is doing 34 post the British-car industry, if it et cent of the export motor-car busi itself out to cater for the world has of the world. But there is a market, would be capable ready market for Britain-with h
aitable car. "You take the view, do you not,"
Sir Percival is enthusiastic about I said, "that the present method the future of the motor car in of calculating horse-power tax pre-dustry, and dismisses brusquely the judices the sales of British care in and AEST the markets of the world-that, in suggesting that we may be nearing fact, it is impossible for British
saturation point. manufacturer to build up any con
Our motor car traffe demands siderable export business in the cirre developing rapidly. Take the cumstancos?"
Great West Rand, which rans almost parallel "My belief," replied Sir Percival Western Balleqam of the the Great Perry," is that the British car opinion that more goods and more
£4.10s, ffor 30-Hour WeeL doesn't sell wall abroad because it is designed down to the horse power than on the parallel railway. passengers are carried on the
road
On the subject of wages, Bir Per cival said Mr. Keynes's proposed "Instead of electrifying the rail-10 per cent. revenue tax might be ways they should, turn many of the only way to get wages into them into roads. We cannot comproper relation to the cost of living pete in the development of elec--by putting up the cost of living wrong i!" tricity with other countries because but he declared himself unhesitat-I am not afraid," was Sir Per wo have no water power. Just asingly a high wage man. coal was at one time a great ad- is no need, in my opinion," he to be better than the past
"There cival's last word, of the future of British trade. The future is going
is a costly anomaly. Whenever you the fiscal question in relation to see traffic block in London, you British industry. will almost invariably and a horse" I am prepared, he replied, at the head of the procession. Be to trust the ultimate instinct ofera sides damaging the surface of the the British people on Free Trade, street, borse traffic is an intolerablo So long as we are a creditor nuisance, and as a factor in radiopation, as we still are, why should sermon emphasised the dangers in congestion met
means an incalculably to pay us their debts by adopting Our safety and lives depend on
We make it hard for our debtors these days of constant travel, heavy addition to useless and un- Protection profitable expenditure."
tox"
The formula on which horse power is ascertained Sir Percival describes totally erroneous according to every engineering and technical standard" and Hungary is the only other civilised country in the world which recognises its applica ten as an indication of horse power and a basis of taxation.
Because it is used to determine
that it has not passed and couldingly common. Mr. P. JPybus, the amount of the annual tax not pass through the safeguarding who has already contributed to the British manufacturers have design- present discussion on the state ofed their cars in recognition of its It buys its materials in what is British trade, provoked a consider. fallacies, with the result, that "all mainly a Free Trade market, and ablo controversy some time ago when such motor cars are inefficient and has all the advantages of Protec he wrote a letter to the Press im-unpopular when compared with tion without the disadvantages mediately after his return from a vehicles having engines which are which would ariso if Protection mission to South Africa and the correctly designed"; and the doors were more widely" extended, and Rhodesis, " In the course of an of world markets are thus nearly especially if iron and steel were extensive tour, he wrote, with a
closed to British cars. protected. It secures the home certain wry humour, market for small cars because of its concentration on short bors and strong stroke, thus keeping the tax
I never saw a lion, but once or twice I saw an English motor
On the other hand commercial care, the taxation of which is not based on this formula," are accept-
low. The horse-power tax is its and this humiliating experi- able and popular in the foreign and
greatest protection against foreign- made cars, as it is also its greatest handicap in Overseas markets,
Export as the Keyword,
JL
It is a fact not without signi- ficance that the greatest increase in the motor car group of industries took place during the year ending June, 1025, which was practically a Fren Trade Fear, when the Mc Kenna duties were not in force and exports, of motor-cars.increased during that year by twice as much ns in any year ander Protection.
The export market must be the dominating factor in the future of this great modern industrial de velopment.
According to a computation by the Secretary of the Association of
epco in shared by every English man who travels through our Em. piras
Chances. Seized by America.
Colonial markets."
"British manufacturers, talk about getting a preference in our own Dominion markets. But, will the Dominions buy British cars!
I may add that I had a similar experience when travelling in the are, conspicuous by their absence.
In foreign markets British cars Near East and in Egypt. I had to listen, to many bitter complaints thing better than any fiscal prefer "Our manufacturers have some from Englishmen, especially in ence in Holland and Denmark. Egypt, about the failure of British We pay at least £45,000,000 a year competition; and in Jugo-Slavia I for Danish produce. Denmark is met by chance a leading member of Free Trade country. It has no a great American motor-manufac local industry to protect. The turing firm (not Ford's) who in-Dants hate having to buy American formed me, with an air of lively cars. But I don't think there in self-satisfaction, that he was pro-a British motor-car agency in the creding to Egypt to all up with country, good American business the big gap unaccountably left open so long by British manufacturers, se
I do not cite these examples in
indicate the kind of criticsm which is persistent and widespread.
The New Works at Dagenham. I went a day or two ago for fur
"We are driving on our gear bar instead of with the engine
"The Ford Company are selling about 10,000 cars a year in Holland; and the Dutch are buying about 30,000 cars a year of all makes-but practically no British cars.
British Motor Car Manufacturers, any carping spirit, but merely to the industry now employs a quarter of a million men and women, Many people who have studied the situp-
Now the balance of trade is tion believe that, with the right
with England, The Dutch much. kind of enterprise and organisa-
prefer to deal with the English. tion, that figures would soon be ther information to Sir Percival This country is spending something, doubled. Export is the keyword. Perry, in the belief that, as chair-like £40,000,000 a year with Hol-|-|||
It is difficult to find any motor man of the Ford Motor Company, land. But the Dutch have to go anufacturer who will admit in he might take a more or less de round the corner 4,000 miles from private that we are making the tached view of the facts. His cum. producer to consumer-to buy cars most of our opportunities in the pany is now putting up on a river: from Holland. And what is inter- markets of the world. That, I frontage two-fifths of a mile long national trade but exchange? think, is a complete understatement an enormous plant at Dagentiam, "Here is a market right across of the position.
in Essex, which will be capable of the road for British cars and get How many Englishmen outside building 200,000 cars and commer, neither Denmark nor Holland buy the industry are aware that the cial vehicles per
elles per annum, and which from Britain. Irish Free State is Britain's biggest will employ many thousands of
British workpeople.
customer for British-made motor- cars? The value of the Free State's It is, of course, frequently desert- purchases of British cars wased that tariffs will compel foreign greater last year than that of all manufacturers to establish factories the foreign countries of the world in this country, and the Dagenham put together, and greater than that enterprise is naturally_quoted_to| of all the oversens Dominions, illustrate this view. Sir Percival
Perry makes an emphatic denial. Abrance of Britian Cars Abroad.
The factory at Dagenham What is the explanation of this being established, he says, discrepancy, in fact of the great cause we believe in the businem ability of some of our lead, Great Britain:as 6 mi ing manufakturers 1. Mr. ME. and distributing cent
Then, as to tariffs, Ford's all. 16,000 cars a year in France in spite of tariffs and strong competi tion; and in Europa 190,000 cars year.
Why Hot Design a Car to Bell'
"Abroad 7
Personally, I believe if the British duty on imported carad bo were removed British manufactur atus of orn-would-do-more-domestic-basi- cturing ness because it would put them on and we their toes!competitively. If they,
Zajminte, managing sdirectors Corpret that at what thisst afof, had to get on their toes they would.
01 Bootee, Lids (the largest motor the output, will be exported to design" a maks of car which they car distributora and exporters In I'markets ontaide Great Britain and could sell abrdad
o
"The United States of America! offers us a glaring example of the rondity and consequences of that problem. It is in our blood to have open marketa The Americans have to be Protectionists. For the same been trained as a debtor nation. reason a creditor nation must be Free Trade. That is tho answer to those who say How can England be right and the rest of the world
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overy crank, bolt, and wheel of the vehicle which is carrying us,” he asidTo ward of danger many people carried mascota on their motor-cars. A mascot was a fetish or a talisman.
need talismans and charms; all they "But surely Christians do not need is God's blessing, and if they must carry something, it should bo The Canon (then blessed the an emblem of St Christopher." medals and tokens of the Saint Afterwards he blessed each ear parked outside..
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