1935-04-12 — Page 3

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. FRIDAY,

APRIL 12,

1935,

41

COMPETING WITH CHEAP LABOUR JAPAN SETS WORLD MERRY PACE

4.

TRICKY PROBLEM FOR ECONOMISTS

- Toyko. Yusen Kaisha, the most important

Western nations, in the opinion) of numerous Japanese shipping

of some economists, may find it companies, operates the world's neccessary to lower their living most extensive steamship service. standards until they are compar able with the standards prevailing

in Asin. That would be the most

competition

In world

WAGE ITEF

Japanese ingenuity and Industry

painful method of meeting Asiatic have a great deal to do with the markets.rowth of Japanese commerce but And difficult as it would be, It

Fit is difficult to emphasise too múch i might prove easier than elevating the important of the low cost of Asiatic standards to the point at fiving and the low Wages paid which Japanese and Chinese work Japanese of almost all classes men would demand and receive factory workers, clerks, salesmen, wages comparable with the average anilors and all, In the Western Hemisphere,

Differences in nationd standards - China today is a negligible. of living are to be discussed at a factor as an exporting nation, so special regional conference of the much so that her growing adverse institute of Paelfie taiations here trade balance in a deterrent to all auon and they are being discussed Ines of business In that country, with growing anxiety in many But at Pelping last month you directors' rooms around the globe, chuld see un exhibition of almost So long as Japanese cotton mill. 10,000 samples of articles mat- shoe factory and trinket factory Factured in Peiping. And Peiping operatives continue to live on a is supposed popularly to be a dying fraction of what the American or city, an ex-capital of title more European factory worker receives importance than an ex-king. in wages and spends, the spectre of Japanese competiton will, dis turb the sleep, of all necidantal manufacturers and throw a good many of them into bankruptcy.

Nor are the factory owners of the West and their employees the only ones suffering from Asiatic competition and threatened with more neute auffering in the future. Sales of American cotton to Chinn thia

Japanese plans for increasing vastly the area devoted to cotton raising in China, using the pro- duct in Japanese-owned cotton mills in both China and Japan, are t well known and experts consider hem feasible, although many pro- blens in this connection reminin to be solved.

3243

The vast difference which pre- year promise to fall far below | vails" between Dresdental the importa of 1934 because the Oriental living standards areen- Chinese are learning to raise more tuates the lifliculty and better colton, and last reason and friendly relations among the of peaceful enjoyed specially favourable weanations of the ther throughout the growing and Some

East and West. I of the most experienced period. picking

Business

Enbservers of Pur Eastern affairs nien, statesmen and fronsider it will be impossible to economists have speculated for preserve peace in the Pacifle pren years on the possible results to beagless to-day's economic problems expected When the millions ofare solved with wisdom and speed. Asiaties began putting into prac

Uce the industrial lessons taught

by

Western teachers. Until re cently, however, it was the fashion! to view the problem pisitosophically Increased Japanese proftciency in the manufacture of many articles! was tos apparent to ignored, but this correspondent recalls the

United Pre

SKILLED

LABOUR

LACKING

Assurance given by 70 leading PROBLEM FOR YEARS

American business man here no

more than ten years ago that Japan;

would never in our time prove al

real menace to American industry.

To prove his point, the business man explained how his factory-on-

TO COME

New York..

Should industry return to-day. to

T

The Eastern seaboard of the United 1929 production basis, it Stales was able to underbid in the would hid itself faced with case of expensive and complicated dearth of skilled labourers and a machinery even the Japanese firm

sharp increase in industrini acel with which his company co-opera-dents, due to long enforced idle- ed and which had the full use of news, Mr. William II. Lange, direc- all its patents. Under American fur of the National Re-employment į technical supervision, the Jap Service announced kere,

nese concern was able to turn out

Lange said a sudden return to

more cheaply than is American high production scales would re- partner many shit articles fairly seat skilled workers had lost their siraple In design. The American touch in the intervening years of partner, however, had to fill the idleness, more important orders. That was many

Also, he explained, industries dispensed with

the situation ten years ago. To- apprentices and learners during the ky the number of articles whith depression and replacements would the Japanese factory is unequipped be diflicult to make-United Press. to produce has dwindled, almost to

the vanishing point. The quality of the entire le manufactured in Japan has improved tremendously, But wages in Japan have remained. comparatively insignificant and the reduced exchange value of the gen has lent added importance to Japanese competition in all mar- kets,

AUTOMOBILE EXPORTS Japan is already an exporter of automobiles. I is not precisely the type of automobile the typient American would drive by choice, but is far better than no auto- mobile at all and, according to re- liable reports, it is effdent and economical to operate. Its price is far below the lowest at which any American automobile could be

apanese cotton piece goods are ilooding the low price markets of the work and the flood would be greater except for drastic. import quotas imposed in India and else where. Japanese crab meat

tins la laid down in New York well below the cost of New England crats. -Japanese rubber boots and Ahocs are the cheapest of the sort to bo

hundreds of Amerihased in

and European shops. The fact that most of the mem- entos of Washington to be found in Pennsylvania Rovenue shops are In Japan makes them no less attractive to tourists who need something tangible, portable and inexpensive to remind them of the Capital building and the Washing ton Monument,

made

These and thousands of other Japanese products are carried in Increasing quantities to the four corners of the earth. And they aro carried almost invariably in Japanese ships: Tha Nippon

A private reception to several of the art experts at present in Shanghai for the purpose of selecting Chinese art treasures for exhibition in England, was given at the residence of Mr. R. D. Abraham ro- cently. Photo shows the group taken in the grounds of Mr. Abraham's residence. From left to rights Mrs. R. D. Abraham, Dr. Wu Lian-tah, Mr. D. L. Habson, Mrs. Rosenheim, Dr. M. P. Pellios, Mr. G. Eumerfopalos, Mrs. 'F. Aysco hand Mr. R. D. Abraham.

Three intrepid Shanghailanders have set forth on the first leg of their 15,000 mile treasure hunt; a quest that will take them into many strange corners of the world. Their boat, "The Flying Dutch- man," is a 33-foot, two-masted sailing cutter, it is equipped with a small cabin fitted with two bunku and a tiny galley.

Thousands of Chinese journeyed to Kiangwan Civic Centre to be witnesses of the first mas wedding ceremony, to be performed in Shanghai..-Abosa, the bridas -proceeding towards the head- quarters of the Shanghai City Government, where the ceremony was conducted, and below. part of the huge crowd which waited patiently outside during the nuptials.

રાત ની હરણી

dous Raka

Shangbala Grit experience of "mase marriage” was witnessed at Klangwan civic centre, when Mayor Wa officiated at a care- mony in which-fifty-seven couples wore united within an hour. The mass wedding, which was conducted under rules prescribed in the New Life Movement, was of the impleat character, but pictureique scenes were witnessed as the couples, two at a time, were married, Following the ceremony, Mayor Wu made a short address, in which ha ezsiaimed the principles of the New Life Morament and exhorted the couples to carry them out. Thousands of spectators, were drawn to the scene, some sut of curiosity, but many in support of the

-movement.

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•

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9, Queer's Road Central (Corner of Ice House Street).