CO129-581-16 British propaganda in Hong Kong 18-4-1939 - 29-10-1939 — Page 52

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3.

Textile Trade Revival. The wholesale textile trade has just

completed its summer stocktaking, and the figures reveal that

trade has been so good that stocks in hand are nearly 10 per cent

lower than at this time last year. Textile warehouses will now

begin stocking supplies for the autumn trade, and it is estimated

that by September the wholesale houses will have laid in stocks

worth £30 millions. The volume of British exports in textiles is

encouraging, and the figures of exports of all-rayon knitted tissues

may be quoted as an example, In the first six months of this year

exports of these tissues amounted to 2,440,000 square yards, valued

at £90,000, compared with 1,736,000 square yards, valued at

365,000 in the first half of 1936.

The British wool tertile industry is now more active than

at any other time since the beginning of 1937, when the level of

activity was considered particularly satisfactory. It is not

only that Government contracts keep a large number of spinners and

manufacturers busy, but that there has been a marked improvement in

civil demand, a reflection of the increase in the purchasing

power of the public. The extent of the revival is evident from the

trend of raw wool consumption. Since January not only has the

consumption been on a much higher level than in the corresponding

months of last year, but monthly consumption this year has been

rising steadily. During the first half of 1939 the amount of raw

wool sent to British mills as 334,000,000 lb., compared with

236,000,000 lb. in the first six months of 1938; this represents

an increase of no less than 41 per cent.