JAPANESE COMPETITION (POTTERY INDUSTRY). (Hansard, 6 December 1933)

§ Mrs. COPELAND
I wish to draw the attention of the Government to the pottery industry and the effects of Japanese competition. I wish to plead for that oldest of industries in this country, an industry which has been built up by the hard work and the brains and the artistic ability of the British working man. Before I say any more I want to thank the Government very much for what they have done for the industry. As most hon. Members know, under the Safeguarding of Industries Act we got a 33⅓ per cent. duty. That became 50 per cent, under the Abnormal Importations Act. But later it dropped to 20 per cent., and things grew very black. Then, thanks to the Government, we were again able to have the 33⅓ per cent, restored, and trade was doing well. It is for that that I wish to thank the Government.
1790 But we have to look further ahead. There is a very dark cloud looming on the horizon, a cloud so dark that it threatens altogether to destroy the greater part of the trade of the Potteries in the very near future. That cloud is the cloud of Japanese competition. It has come up very suddenly. In fact, it is only in the last three or four months that we have begun to realise what this competition means. We have begun to discover that, in the Dominions anyhow, the competition is so severe that it threatens to sweep the English Potteries right out of those countries. I have here a letter from Sydney, showing how very serious is this Japanese competition. Last month, well over 2,000 cases of earthenware were landed in New South Wales alone, as against 300 packages of earthenware from England. This is, of course, appalling, when you think of the shortness of the time in which this happened.
I have the same news from New Zealand. On 15th June, a letter reports that a large firm in Auckland had just landed Japanese tea sets at the price of 2s. lid. per set of 21 pieces. This is a price less than the cost of material here in England. There is no doubt that Japan is making a dumping-ground of both Australia and New Zealand. The landing cost of Japanese goods is less than the price of the same article would be at the factory in London.
Without wishing to delay the House at this late hour I would like to mention some of the prices at which Japanese ware is being sold. I have here a supper set which, if made here, would cost 7s. 11d. The Japanese are able to do it for 5s. 6d. Added to the effect of the low prices, we have to realise that English trade marks are being copied so cleverly that many people abroad are buying these articles thinking that they are of British manufacture. People are deceived by these marks. Quite recently, some articles of this kind were marked "York." They purported to come from a well-known English firm. It takes a little more ability than the average person possesses to realise that possibly "York" in this case is a shortened form of "Yokohama." I have here an advertisement from a Sydney paper in which Japanese goods are advertised under an English mark. The English mark is "Mt. Shelley." The "Mt." possibly means "imita- 1791 tion," but the ordinary person would naturally think that the article came from the well-known firm of Shelley. There are numerous other examples of this attempt on the part of the Japanese to imitate our marks and pass off their articles as English.
I have brought down here two cups, one made in England and the other in Japan. I ask hon. Members to examine these as they are passed round. The Japanese article is quite well done— sufficiently well done to take in any ordinary person buying it. What is so much against the British worker, however, is the great cheapness of the Japanese article. There is one thing certain, that we cannot absolutely prohibit Japan from dumping her goods in the Dominions or in this country, and it is for that reason that I am attempting to discover what the Government will suggest as a safeguard against this competition. It is our own workpeople whose living is at stake. Possibly the Government in their wisdom may be able to impress on the Dominions that by buying these cheap goods which come into their countries they are in reality lowering the wages of their own workpeople, and attacking their standard of living.
It stands to reason that if one country is allowed to dump goods at knock-out prices all over the world, little by little industry in all other countries will suffer, and it will not be possible for any of them to maintain the wages of their own people at a proper level. The people who will suffer most are our own people, whose standard of living is naturally and very rightly higher than that of anyone else in the world. I wonder whether it will be possible for the Government to point out to these Dominions that the amount of revenue lost to their own country by the admission of cheap goods is very great, for even if the highest tariff were demanded for Japanese goods it would still be considerably lower than would be collected from British imports. As an example of this, 100 dozen Japanese cups and saucers for restaurant use would yield a revenue of £3 0s. 6d., while 100 dozen of the cheapest British cups and saucers for the same purpose would pay a duty and primage of £7 12s. A Japanese brown teapot costs 1792 1s. a dozen, but here a similar teapot costs 18s. a dozen.
When putting on a tax, would it be possible for the Government to take into consideration the depreciation of Japanese currency as compared with ours, and also the extremely low wage levels which obtain in Japan and the very long hours of work? Would it be possible to point out to the health authorities the danger that accrues to the subject from the fact that the Japanese cups are fired face downwards, which means that the rims of the cups afterwards are not able to be properly glazed, and that is a danger, as it absorbs so many impurities. I hope the hon. Gentleman will be able to tell us something definite. The Government have safeguarded our interests here against European countries, and I hope they will be equally clever to safeguard our interests from Eastern competition.

§ Sir JOSEPH LAMB
I should like to support what the hon. Lady has said in the interests of the pottery industry. The dishonesty of these trade marks being infringed is obvious, but there is real urgency in this matter, because the markets, not only at home but abroad, are being flooded, and it will take a considerable time for them to clear themselves so as to enable our manufacturers again to enter those markets.

§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of TRADE (Dr. Burgin)
The House will wish me to congratulate the hon. Lady on the way in which she has presented her case, and on the somewhat novel method by which she has displayed her ware. We are dealing with a serious subject, and the sympathy of the whole House goes out to the pottery industry, and the hon. Lady's constituency in particular, when it is found and demonstrated that Japanese competition is making serious inroads into a staple trade. I hope the extent of those inroads will not be exaggerated. I do not in the least wish to minimise the consequences of Japanese competition, and I am fully aware of the fact, mentioned by the hon. Lady, that the increase is precisely in the last few months. It is impossible for Government statistics to keep pace with developments that are so recent as that. The 1793 whole of the published data and material which are accessible to me are naturally a little further away in point of time than actual current dates, and consequently a number of the figures which I am able to give to the House are more encouraging than the reality, if the facts that the hon. Lady has mentioned are widespread, and happen in other markets as well as in these Dominion markets to which she has referred.
I am hoping to have the pleasure of receiving a deputation from the Pottery Manufacturers' Federation next Tuesday, when there will be rather more time than there is to-night to deal with the gravamen of some of the matters which are brought before the Board of Trade. There are two or three things that ought to be stated at once. First of all, any unfair competition with regard to copying and imitation of styles, trade marks, and names ought most severely to be dealt with. The Government do not intend to have anything of that kind trifled with. If instances of British makers' registered trade marks being infringed or copied in any underhand manner, by Japanese exporters, importing houses or merchants, are brought to the notice of the Government, every possible step will be taken to assist those whose mark have been wrongly interfered with, and, through the proper diplomatic quarters, to call the attention of those in authority in Japan to practices which are clearly reprehensible, and which no Government which desires to carry on a world-wide commerce ought to tolerate for a moment. The President of the Board of Trade dealt with the matter in an earlier Debate, a few days ago, and I desire merely to repeat his words.
The law in general is quite strong enough. It is merely a question of the application of it, and having material sufficient at first hand to enable all necessary steps to be taken. The hon. Lady will be the first to appreciate, with her unrivalled knowledge of the pottery trade, that if you are going to take up a case of the infringement of a registered mark, you must be quite sure that your mark is registered, you must be clear that it is an actual infringement, and be able to give chapter and verse that it was a Japanese who did it; but you must bring it home to individuals or to 1794 some exporting house. We must have that minimum of proof, and, subject to that aspect of the matter, the unfair competition ought most severely to be taken in hand. We can properly call the attention of the Dominion Governments to gaps in their legislation. For instance, in one of our great Dominions, South Africa, the law with regard to marks of foreign origin is nothing like as modern as the law in the United Kingdom and in some other of the self-governing Dominions. That is a matter of local legislation, and where we find that British exporting interests are handicapped by the absence of proper legislative provisions in one of the Dominion markets, then we will seek to bring representations to bear upon the Dominion Government concerned to suggest to them that they might, with propriety, consider the overhaul of their legislation dealing with merchandise marks.
Having cleared the air of that matter of unfair competition, and having told the House that we are going to receive this pottery trade deputation, there is really not very much more that one can deal with in a moment or two; but let me say, as the hon. Lady will also realise, that the state of unemployment in the pottery districts is very much better than it has been for a long time past. The figures have been steadily falling during 1931, 1932 and 1933, and the percentages are really most gratifying. In 1931 the percentage of unemployed was over 30; in 1932, it was 26; and in 1933, it is 17— still a long way to go, but it is only fair to look at both sides of the ledger and notice how the unemployment figure is falling. Then the number of people in employment shows 7 per cent, increase over 1932.

§ Mr. COCKS
Nothing to do with Japan.

§ Dr. BURGIN
Well that is not quite, right. The increase between 1931 and 1933 has been no less than 7,600 persons, in the pottery trade. British exports of pottery are going up. In the last three months for which I have figures, August, September and October, compared with 1932, the figures show a very gradual and continuous rise. I have the figures of the exports of pottery to the various self-governing Dominions, and of Japan's exports, and there is nothing in the 1795 figures down to the end of 1932 to show that our exports have gone down as a result of Japanese exports going up. I have pointed out to the hon. Lady that that may be because her figures are much more recent. What she says has happened has happened in the last few months. But I shall be very glad to go into this matter when—as no doubt she will—she accompanies the deputation on Tuesday. I hope I shall be able then to develop the matter rather more carefully than I can now under the rules of the House. I thank the hon. Lady for bringing this matter to our attention.
1796 It has the constant attention of the Government. We believe that conversations with Japan are the right method of dealing with these industrial matters. We believe there is a way to be found in the world for Japanese trade and British trade to live side by side, with a very proper proportion to the United Kingdom.