44 



There is also in process of formation an advisory committee, 

 made up of the most influential manufacturers, chemists, importers, 

 and scientists in every way connected with the trade. 



There will be notable loan exhibits, European and American, 

 exhibits of laboratory and factory appliances, etc., etc. 



There will be a series of conferences at which essays on various 

 subjects of interest to the trade will be read. 



When one considers that the United States not only uses one half 

 of the world's crude rubber, but manufactures much more than one 

 half of the world's rubber goods ; when one further considers the very 

 general interest that the press and the people of the country are to- 

 day evincing in rubber, it would appear that the exhibition was 

 timely. That it can be made broadly informing to every trade and 

 profession, to business organizations and to schools, goes without 

 saying, and Mr. Manders' past record furnishes no reason to doubt 

 his complete grasp of the possibilities as well as his ability to carry 

 his plans through to a successful finish." 



A Rubber Exhibition in New York offers an opportunity to 

 planters to emphasise the real position of the present and prospec- 

 tive magnitude of plantation rubber in the East, which financial 

 statements showing the area under cultivation and the output of 

 rubber fail to convey, as is evidenced by the American manufacturers, 

 and delegates from Brazil, who have visited Singapore and the 

 Federated Malay States during the past few months. 



Hitherto manufacturers (the real masters of the rubber market) 

 held large stocks of crude rubber, and this policy is slowly changing 

 in favour of forward contracts with estates. It only remains to 

 convince all manufacturers that the plantation industry is an estab- 

 lished one, and that the output of over 10,000 tons for Malaya during 

 191 1 will be largely exceeded year by year. It would therefore be of 

 direct advantage to estates to earn a good name on the market. 



Another advantage is offered, which should not be lost sight of, 

 by displaying plantation rubber in bulk, it furnishes an opportunity 

 of conveying to all concerned the improbability of synthetic rubber 

 replacing raw rubber. Synthetic rubber is a scientific fact so far as 

 the laboratory is concerned, and it may not be long before the 

 commercial proposition is before the world. Rubber displayed in 

 bulk would be more convincing than figures. It could be seen what 

 the substitute would have to replace in both wild and cultivated raw 

 rubber, and also, what is usually forgotten, reclaimed rubber. Both, 

 governments and financiers, might pause to think that rubber trees 

 can be brought into bearing in a few years, while turpentine, the base 

 of synthetic rubber and the product of fir trees, approach a century. 

 Two results are apparent, the gradual destruction of forests w^iich 

 could not be replaced ; the consequent increased price of turpentine, 

 and the improbability of producing synthetic cheaper than raw 

 rubber. 



The converse of synthetic rubber is overproduction of plantation 

 rubber — also a possibility. Outside Malaya there is more real acti- 

 vity in planting rubbers at the present time than at any previous 



