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PART I.-The Chinese Wool Textile Industry.
WOOL.
187. Tientsin is the centre of the Chinese raw wool trade and the town from which the bulk of the exports are shipped, only com- paratively small quantities passing through other ports. The exports comprise sheep's wool, goat hair, goats' wool or cashmere obtained from the fine inner coat of the goat's fleece by combing the animal, and camels' wool.
Sheep's wool comes to Tientsin in two forms, viz., as fleeces and as ball wool obtained by combing in the same way as cashmere. As received at Tientsin, the various wools may contain from 40 to 60 per cent. of sand which has to be removed by willeying after the wool has been graded. The clean wool is then exported either in the scoured or unscoured state.
The sheep's wool is coarse, irregular and kempy in quality and mainly suitable for carpet manufacture. As will be seen from Table IX, Appendix B, the bulk of this wool is absorbed by the United States. We were informed that the demand from the United States diminished in 1930 owing to the general trade de- pression and also to alterations in the United States import tariff, which gave the American carpet manufacturer a wider choice of raw materials. Wool exporters at Tientsin are therefore seeking new markets. Great Britain takes about 80 per cent. of the cashmere (2,128,000 lb.) and about 80 per cent. of the camels' hair (5,458,000 lb.) as will be seen from Tables X and XI, of Appendix B. Table XII shows that the export of goat hair to Great Britain declined by one-half in the period 1926-29 (from 882,000 to 419,000 lb.) whereas the export of goat hair to Germany increased fourfold (from 218,000 to 882,000 lb.).
THE DOMESTIC INDUSTRY.
188. We are informed that there is a considerable amount of hand-spinning on Chinese native spinning-wheels in the interior of China. At Tsinan in the province of Kansu, for example, it is said that thousands of women and girls spin yarn in their homes and sell it in the local markets. The yarn is made into a kind of serge which is used throughout the province and also in the neigh- bouring province of Shensi. Fukiang, also in Kansu, is a centre of the domestic knitting industry where woollen socks, leg binders, and one-piece woollen suits for children are made. The country folk also make felt jackets in one piece, and in many parts of the province coarse cloth is woven in the homes. This cloth is nearly all worn by male members of the family, not much being sold in the market. The material is, of course, of a very rough type, only suitable for the domestic use of the local peasant population and, therefore, does not clash in any way with imported woollen cloth.
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THE KNITTING INDUSTRY.
189. In addition to the domestic knitting industry briefly men- tioned above, in recent years there has been a rapid expansion of the knitting industry on a factory scale. The factories are mostly situated in Shanghai (in the International and French Settlements), and in Hongkong (Kowloon). Knitting factories are also found at Canton and other towns in the south; and at Mukden and Harbin in the north. Many of these factories are quite small with only a few machines, whereas others employ up to 100/200 work people. Some of the larger factories are well equipped and the conditions of labour as regards light, heat, and ventilation, are quite good. Some of the smaller factories, however, leave much to be desired, the equipment being antiquated and the working conditions insani- tary. In the larger factories the machinery is driven by electrical power, but in some of the small factories winding and circular knitting machines are worked by hand. We found the following rates of wages at various factories visited in different towns:—
In local dollars (see footnote).
Men on straight bar knitting machines for
fleece cloth Men or women machine minders in an
electrically-driven factory
With foremen earning
Girl warpers in fleece cloth factory Women and girl machinists in small hand-
driven hosiery factory
Young girl assistants in large hosiery
factory
$1.00 to $1.50 per day.
70 cents to about $1 per day. $60 per month,
40 cents to 50 cents per day.
About 50 cents per day.
15 cents to 20 cents per day.
Note. It is difficult to translate these rates into sterling as silver was rapidly depreciating in value at the time of our visit. The Shanghai dollar, for example, which stood at about 15d. in November, 1930, had fallen to less than 11d. at the time of writing (February, 1931). The average earnings of these Chinese textile workers at the time of our visit were therefore in terms of English money approximately 1s. to ls. 6d. per day for men, 5d. to 1s. per day for adult women and 2d. to 6d. per day for young girls.
In the hosiery factories which we visited, the machinery was almost entirely American, but some German machines were seen in the fleece cloth factories. These industries are likely to expand and there would appear to be a promising field for English makers of knitting machinery.
190. The wool yarn is all imported, a large variety of goods being made from British and Continental worsted yarn. Fleece cloth for inter-lining is made from imported woollen yarn. This fleece cloth is usually knitted on straight bar machines using normally a Chinese spun and dyed cotton warp. It is 54-56 inches wide, made both in plain and a large variety of fancy coloured patterns. The finishing process consists of a fairly heavy raising, usually on machines of the Moser type. The cloth is largely used by the Chinese as a lining for winter overcoats of European style, and
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