THE HONGKONG. TELEGRAPH. FRIDAY,
JAPAN IS WINNING
THIS WAR
She Has Swept Her
Trade Rivals
From Ethiopia
ITALY IS NOT EVEN IN-
:
THE PICTURE
Addis Ababa, Nov. 5.
Out of estimated Ethiopian imports of U.S. $5,000,000 for 1934, a total of U.S. $3,-- 000,000 came from Japan. These figures tell the story of Japanese penetration of the Ethiopian market, as it stands at present.
The market is a tiny one, limited from every point of view. It is essentially a price market, where quality makes little difference. It is a market which must undergo great expansion before it can be important.
Almost the entire Japanese import total was in textiles, a field dominated until 1926 by the United States and later by Manchester's mills in India. But even in textiles; trade has fallen off..
imports of all kinds in the first six months of 1934, taken ua a totalled reasonably normal year,
9,000 ton. In the same period of 1935 they were 4,000 tons..
It would have been even worse except for extraordinary Imports of gasoline in expectation of war. By a special arrangement, the Len- bought 5,000 government gallon cases on condition that the company which closed the deal import and store within the coun- try for later purchase, 20,000 cases
five years supply for the govern-| ment or two years supply, for the entire nation.
Gray "sheeting forms the basle import article: flimsy, transparent
stuff no heavier than cheesecloth,
used by Ethioplans for their togs-
like shamas and the all-concealing
body and head wraps of the women, Even imports of this commodity dropped from 3,200 Loun during the first half of 1934 -to 2,382 tons so far this year. The gray sheeting constitutes almost: the entire textile Import, and it is completely Japanese,
Tents From Japan
In a few special textile wares, the United States and Great Britain still can compete, but they are only a tiny fretion of the total. Even the canvas tent in which the Emperor opened the Ethiopian Red Cross was stamped ench strip, "Finest Japan Sheeting."
on
The reason for the decline of imports is obvious. There is too much uncertainty. No one cares to put too big a stake at risk. Extension of credit kns ceased. War risk insurance has risen from % of one per cent. a year to 3 per cent, per six months in Addis Ababa, 6 per cont, per six months in the Interior, and double for Italans.
The American share of imporis for the entire year 1934 was about $200,000, of which $150,000 repre- sonted petroleum products and It would $40,000 automobiles.
have sunk to almost nothing this year except for the extraordinary purchase of 140 trucks by the government, all intended for the army, which has given a $200,000 total for six months..
Exports Tied Up
Exports have been hamstrung by the alump in world prices, par ticularly in coffee, the great money crop, despite the artificially low price of the silver thaler-it solls at 13.5 to the pound instead of the 10 which would be its proper price.
Coffee is the life blood of ex- ports, and Ethiopia's chief contri- bution to the world. An Arab legend has it that Egyptian Christian monks, settled in Kaffa province in the 8rd Century, dis- covered that their cattle became frisky and sleepless after eating a certain shrub. Out of their ex- periments, and especially out of the coffee culture of Yemen in Arabia, whore soods had been transported, grew the present boverage. "Coffee" is supposed
to come from "kaffa," and certain it is that vast virgin forests of coffee tres may be found all over the provinco.
Coffee, which stood at 16 cents, American, a pound in 1928, is now down to 4 to 5 cents. The 15,000 to 20,000 tons average crop has not
MIGHTY WARTIME.
WARRIOR
NOVEMBER 8, 1935.
Multi-Million Jazz NOVEL! On Luxuries
Completely remodeled art modernised, the Queen Elsanovod, one of the largest of B.kish waranine, has steamed to the Me terranean, there to join the Hood and Renown, world's mightiest naval vessels,
Monkey Parasite
For Paralysis.
injected with a monkey par*= site, known as ope mataria, a 03- year-old miner mfering from paralysis of the issue, is Heneral showing improvement,
A report on nese treatment published, in the fast innue of the "British Medient Journal“ acpe that the man is enting heartily, his speech is much clearer and his grandione delusions dimppeared.
Treasure
Trove In The Pacific
A min.
have
Paris, Nov. 7.
n woman, a 30-foot yacht. the "spirit" of Benito Bonita, Portuguese....buccaneer, at the helmassed through Paris this week bound for the Cocos Islands, treasure Islands of the Parific.
The man, sunburned, bespec-
AMERICA IN SEARCH.
:OF PLEASURE
Will
H. K. Will Benefit
From Enormous
Tourist Trade
New York, Nov. 1.
America has started on a multi-million dollar pleasure chase which already is result- ing in the greatest box office receipts since 1929, heavy gambling turnovers and revived business in luxuries, à United Press survey shows.
Shackles of depression-day penury are being thrown off. Perhaps nervousness over impending war has brought psychological determination to spend in amusement pursuits. Whatever the answer, the American pleasure bill for the winter is going to be the highest in several years.
Already there are such develop- ments as:
CINEMA OPERA IS
COMING
Three Famous Men With a
C1
New Film Technique
INEMA opera, with an entirely new technique, will be
the next development in films.
Mr. Harold Holt, the famous impresario, has joined forces with two men equally famous in the entertainment world-a film producer and a musical conductor-and the scheme is already well advanced.
All three are. convinced that IB R to produce opera as opera fatal mistake. To use opera on the screen, they have decided to "get away from opera.”
Mr. diolt has discolsed some of the. details. Big romantic' sub- Raba and other tales from Thousand and One Nights, will be chosen.
the
tacled, fifty-eight-year-old German,jects, such as Robin Hood or Ali Hubert Merzurich, said that he and his companion Margot wore spiritualists, and that they were being piloted on their long and hazardous voyage from Hamburg to the Cocos by Benito.
They left Hamburg two months
ago.
"Bonita Bonita." anid Herr Mer- us in the zurich, "appeared to cabin of our boat about two years sgo. He told Marght and me that he had chosen us to lift his trea- sure and distribute it among the poor of the world.
"By menus of the planchette he made Margot draw a map of the island showing where the treasure lies buried.
"He told us not to get married until the treasure was found, and promised to guide us safely across the ocean to its hiding place."
diminished since then, but the price is ruinous.
No Buyers At Market Great quantities have been ex- ported this year-10,000 tons for the first six months, or the same na for all of 1934-but it is only war fear which prompts the ship. ments, and they are waiting at, Djibouti for buyers. If the price drops further, exports will be fruitless and the crop will rot, or un in Brazil, be burned.
The coffee situation tells just about the complete export story, a yearly total of around 30,000 tons being maintained even under present conditions,, but with an average price drop of 25 to 33 per cent. The peak year 1928 showed 50,000 tons imported against 30,- 000 exported, but in a normal year they are about even.
Ifides, the second largest-export commodity, have fallen 15 per Goat and sheep cent in price. skins, keeping the'r volume, have gone off 49 per cent. And the story is the sams with booswa leopard skins livet, the onl other article thy of montlas
every
From Rossini To Roy Music will be gathered from conceivable Houres-from Back to Bax, Rosslul to Harry Roy.
It will be reorchestrated," the aim being to adapt it Lo. the
situation.
The entire cast, singers as well fit as actors, will be chosen to their parts as carefully as a star is chosen for the load in a play.
The Grace Moore type of film. in which a single star dominates and only a few theme songs ap pear, is already finished, accord- ing to Mr. Holt,
The greedy weekly demand of millions for something new," he Raid, "makes it vital for the
FRITZ KREISLER
£100,000 To £100 Bet
cinema to keep constantly chang Recalled
ing if it is to live.
All Colour in Two Years
"In another two
years every film in the world will be in colour, and colour will have begun to pall,
"But by that time the three- dimensional film will be here, and stereoscopic vision will give new life to the cinema."
hava Already experimenters given a plastic appearance to the single figure, said Mr. Holt, and it remains to solve the problem of group and mass.
In his owif special field of the concert hall Mr. Hoit is also planning a new development-the operatic, concert. In the season' 1996-7 a galaxy of musical stars will be seen on the same platform, he said.
Among the stars he has secured the "res:nt Season are for Kreis'er.. Hafetz, Tauber, An'a Por me. M-Cormack Toti Monto, Simon Barer and the Barlin. aktikarmonic -chestra under
} Furtwangler.
*
A £100.000 to £100 bet has been recalled by the publication of the will of Mr. Alfred Heathorn, the prominent Tattersall's bookmaker and racehorse owner, who died in July aged 64.
Mr. Heathern, who lived at Dryads Garth, Blahops-avenue, Hampstead, N.W., left £80,0DG.
Estate duty of £16.836 has been pald,
A
In 1991 Mr. Henthorn laid the late Mr. H. F. Clayton £100,000 to £100 that his nominations would not succeed in winning the Cesaro witch and Cambridge.
Mr. Clayton nearly brought off the coup for his Six Wheeler was second in the Cesarswitch and his Disarmament won the Cambridge- sh're.
¿
1.000 EACH
Several New York City movie theatres have reported attendance for full week in excess of previous records.
The Buer-Louis fight drew a gate of more than a million dollars the first million dollar fight since the Dempsey regime... Prices at U.S. $25 top were the highest since the start of the depression.
Betting on the fight exceeded U.S. $6,000,000.
The national baseball league had enormous attendances with only two clubs under the good 1934 re- turns.
The Narrangansett race track hnd a turn-over in pari-mutuel machines of $13,728,368 for a 30- day rate meet while betting at New York, tracks is running 20 per cent. #head of 1934.
Steamship travel is running 20 to 30 per cent. ahead of a year ago with palatial liners filled. Around the world cruises for the winter--- with reservations costing many thousando apiece have been book- ed for months..
Diamonds In Demand
Diamond trade is increasing and Fifth Avenue diamond merchants whose business has been slim-in-re- cent years, are finding increased- demand.
the These are just items in general picture which extends nation-wide. New York, centre of much of the winter's guiety, is out- standing in the rush to find fun. Some Broadway restaurants have found it necessary to string silken
ropes across the door to hold back crowds; the first time in six years these ropes have been taken from the store-rooms. There are more
night clubs operating now than in recent years and consequently more entertainers are at work. Charges nre about the same.
Dun & Bradstreet surveyed the retail business and found the de- mand for dress suits for men was Increasing the first time since 1929 that dress suits have, oven been mentioned. Women's fur evening wraps and expensive oven- ing frocks are having a tremend- merchants turnover. Some expect the greatest winter business Bince 1929.
Dus
Meanwhile an example of how cager people are to spend was seen in the Baer-Lou's fight. Top seats were $25-if bought several weeks before the fight from the promoter. Speculator reaped fortune.
One Wall Street house bought a mezzanine box at $25 a seat. Just before the fight the box was sold at $125 a sent. And the same situation prevails throughout the nation; as for ex- ample:
the
In Madera, California, Madera Theatre recently played to 2,886 people in three days, a record. Portland, Oregon, reported movie business 10 to 15 per cent. above last year and the best since 1929. For the first time since 1929 there are no "dark" houses. Jewellery business is 10 per cent, above a year ago.-United Press.
children of his late brother-in-law Mr. Heathorn loft £1,000 each to George Richard Sutton, his shares his brother George Heathorn and in A. Heathorn. Itd., as to 1,002 the wife of his son Alfred Thomas to his wife and 995 to his son Heathorn, $200 and $1 a wook to Alfred Thomas..
h's wife's sister, Emily Moore, Ile also gave £250 to his Bolici- and 2105, pugh to hot children, | tor. Philin Fmanuel, as an appre- £50 to Gertrude Colo. £100 to the clation of their negociation and. chi'dren and grandchildren of his | friendship. The residue of the brother George, $100 each to the property goes to his wife.
Beautiful Chinese lampshades which, fold absolutely flat. Frames col- lapse and shades may be folded into
'an envelope. These are the latest creation. Reasonable and most effective. Ideal Gifts.
Now on display at →→→→ 13. ICE HOUSE STREET.
ALWAYS
INSIST
ON
BRASS
BRASSO
METAL POLISH Gives a lasting shine to Brass and Copper: Brasso is quick and easy to use.
RECKITT & SONS LTD. HULL & LONDON Agwater
IMPERIAL CHEMICAL
INDUSTRIES
(China) LTD. HONGKONG
B.B.C.
Marked For Death!
Air
... bacause they ride the sides in defiance of
the MURDER BEAMI
Hawks
RALPH BELLAMY WILEY POST
ALA:BIRELL
AT
SUNDAY THE
QIURE
See Wiley Poit
match his wits
gainst the
mysterious iDeath
Ray"
ALHAMBRA
LAST 2 WEEKS!
OF OUR
FIRE SALE
COME IN TO-DAY
VICTORIA SILK PALACE
Central 37, Queen's Rd.,
The MING YUEN STUDIO has removed to the 3rd Floor of No. 6 Queen's Road Central.
JUST OPPOSITE the Dairy Farm's Soda Fountain