248 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1920. 



secretly and more or less openly, large purchases of rubber were 

 made. For that matter the crude rubber situation is merely a 

 question of importation. Much more difficult is the procuring 

 of the necessary textiles and, most serious of all, arc the pros- 

 pects of a coal shortage this winter. The outlook in this re- 

 spect must be described as very unfavorable. The Continental 

 Rubber & Gulta Percha Co. has been obliged to shut down for a 

 week on account of lack of fuel. 



As stated above, the prohibition of automobile tiros imports 

 lemains in. force for the present without its having been able 

 to interfere thus far with the flooding of the German market 

 with foreign tires on the expulsion of rubber maiuifactures from 

 the field they had occupied. 



.Ml in all the conditions which await the Gtrman rubber in- 

 dustry are not precisely rosy. Of crude rubber it will be able 

 to obtain more than enough but at what cost in comparison with 

 values, besides the everlasting strikes, the demands for high 

 wages, the unwillingness to work and the prospect of nearing 

 communistic troubles. 



The Hamburg crude rubber market begins to come to life even 

 if the transactions are still very small. Holland can sell much 

 rubber to Germany— if the dealers there will put up with unfa- 

 vorable terms of payment and credits. Germany has become a 

 |)oor country and must pay dearly for many sins she has com- 

 mitted. The great mass of the people, however, did not wish for 

 the war and regarded it throughout as a war of defence. 



PRESIDENT OF KOBE-OSAKA RUBBER 

 MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION. 



Y" MiYAGAWA, president of the Kobe-Osaka Crude Rubber 

 • Merchants' Association, was born on October 23, 1888, in 

 the city of Hiroshima, Japan. His father being a Samurai 

 of high standing, Mr. Miyagawa was brought up in a very strict 

 home. Later, however, he was 

 converted to the Christian religion 

 and baptized in December, 1904. 

 Having graduated from the Hiro- 

 shima Commercial College with 

 honors in March, 1905, he entered 

 the Royal Rubber Works, Kobe, 

 wlicre he learned about rubber 

 goods in general as well as meth- 

 ods of manufacture under Dr. R. 

 Yoshida, one of the greatest rub- 

 ber authorities in Japan. 



In 1910 Mr. Miyagawa was ap- 

 pointed sales manager of the Stan- 

 dard rubber factory, and in Sep- 

 tember, 1912, was made manager 

 of the Nagoya branch of the Dun- 

 Y. MivACAWA. '°P Rubber Co. (Far East). Lim- 



ited. In November, 1913, he de- 

 cided to go into business for himself and established the firm of 

 Y. Miyagawa & Co., Osaka, importers of crude rubber and ex- 

 porters of rubber goods. The business prospered, and entrust- 

 ing this Osaka office to his younger brothers, he started a branch 

 at Kobe, which has since been separated from the Osaka office 

 and is an independent firm at present. 



Mr. Miyagawa has visited the Straits Settlements and India, 

 studying rubber market conditions in general. These journeys 

 taught him the need of improving the general conditions under 

 which transactions in crude rubber were being made in Japan 

 and when the Kobe-Osaka Crude Rubber Merchants' Association 

 was established under his auspices he was appointed president 

 He IS also a director of the Osaka Rubber Goods Merchants' 

 Association, and is the adviser to the Indian Market Department 



of the Dunlop Rublwr Co. (Far East), Limited. His wide ex- 

 perience and responsible connections entitle Mr. Miyagawa to be 

 regarded as one of the highest authorities in the Japanese rub- 

 ber trade. 



THE DUTCH ARE UP TO DATE. 



Very few are aware of the fact that the Government of 

 Holland exercises an exceedingly careful supervision over the 



rul)I)er and gutta percha industry in the Nethcrhnd p:ast Indies, 

 not in a cursory way, l>iit in the way of sciemil'ic icsiiiiL; of all 



Machinery, Telh.vical College, Delft, 



Holland. 



types of gums, and reports that are of the greatest value to the 

 planters. 



The accompanying illustration relates to the experimental rub- 

 ber plant erected at the technical college at Delft, Holland. It 

 deals with only one portion of the large department devoted to 

 the rubber mill section. Here are seen a miniature washer, mix- 

 mg mill, calender, press and vulcanizer, all of the approved type 

 and capable of handling samples of considerable size. The plant 

 is run electrically, and there is also a self-contained steam gen- 

 erating plant. Connected with this department is an up-to-date 

 laboratory equipped with everything necessary for analysis and 

 testing. 



A FREE PORT AT STOCKHOLM. 



Sweden, having decided to establish a system of free ports, 

 has made a beginning with one in the harbor of Stockholm, 

 which is now open for business, though far from completion. 

 It may take ten years before the plans prepared are fully car- 

 ried out. As it is, two steamers can now be sent out at once. 

 By next year piers will have been built which will allow steam- 

 ers drawing 27 feet to discharge. Stockholm is getting ready 

 to handle most of the goods that are to go to other Baltic ports. 



THE NIGERIAN METHOD OF STRIKEBREAKING. 



Two months' imprisonment with hard labor is the penalty 

 for West Coast of Africa negroes who refuse to work on Sun- 

 day, according to a judgment given recently at Calabar in south- 

 ern Nigeria. A large Para rubber plantation started tapping 

 and informed the "boys" who had been trained for the work, 

 that they must work on Sundays, and would receive more pay 

 than the other laborers who did not work on that day. After 

 trying it for one Sunday, a few of them organized a strike, after 

 European methods, induced most of the others not to work, 

 threatened those who were willing, and informed the manager 

 that the men would not tap at all unless he stopped Sunday 

 work. The ringleaders were arrested. The magistrate at once 

 found them guilty and told them he could send them up for 

 two years but, as it was a first oflfence. gave them only two 

 months. 



