8,^8 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Ski'tember 1, 1920. 



DEATH OF THREE PROMINENT GERMAN RUBBER MEN. 



The "Cumiiii'/^ritKiii;" announces the deatli nf ilircc men prom- 

 inent in the German rubber industry. Ch. I'. I'.ohuing, director of 

 the Bremer Gummiwerke Roland A. G., died in Bremen, Ger- 

 many, on July 4, 1920. Before entering the above firm Mr. 

 Bohning was director of the Grottau Section of the Vereinigte 

 Berlin Frankfurt Gummiwaren faDriken. 



Dr. Hugo Cassirer died in Charlottenburg, near Berlin, on the 

 eighth of July, at the age of lilty-one years. He was the founder 

 of Dr. Cassirer and Co., and of the Lincas Gummiwaren fabrik, 

 G. m. b. H. 



Karl Reithofifer, a member of the well-known lirni of the 

 Gummi-und Kabelwerke Josef Reithoffer's Soehne, Vienna Stepr- 

 Trcncscn. died in Vienna, on June 22, 1920, following an operation 

 for appendicitis. He was born in 1870. The firm of Josef Reit- 

 hoffer's Soehne is said to be the oldest rubber works in the 

 world, having been founded in 1811 by J. N. ReithofTer, for the 

 manufacture of rubber thread to be used in elastic woven goods. 



ihut; 



.•ir quality and importance to Ger- 



TARIFF NOTES. 



AUSTRALIA. 



AMONG RECENT ADDITIONS to the list of articles that may be 

 admitted into Australia free of import duty under special 

 license for use in the manufacturing of other commodities are 

 machines for applying rubber internal wire tires to wheels, and 

 machines for close-jointing rubber internal wire tires after appli- 

 cation to wheels. 



INCREASE OF CUSTOMS DUTIES IN BELGIUM. 



By a Belgian law dated June 10, 1920, the government was 

 authorized to apply to the specific rates of duty laid down in the 

 Customs Tarifif "coefficients of increase," which were not to ex- 

 ceed three in any case. This law was followed by a royal decree 

 dated June 12. The decree became effective on June 21 and 

 will continue in force until June 15, 1921. The coefficient of in- 

 crease does not apply to ad valorem duties. The coefficient of 

 increase is the figure by which the normal tarifT must be multiplied 

 to obtain the new rate of duty. 



£(7uiVii/fii/j. — Franc, about 19 cents (normal) ; kilo, 2.2 pounds. 



Dutv Coefficient 

 Tariff ^ i" , oi 



No. Francs. Increase. 



10. India rubber: 



Raw Free 



""tllid'jl^s mi.il.. 65.00 2 



Pneumatic tires: 



Casings for automobiles and motorcycles: 



With studded leather band 100 kilos 130.00 2 



Other \m kilos 116.00 2 



Casings for other vehicles weighing each- - 



Less than 600 grammes 100 kilos OO.flO 2 



600 grammes or over 100 kilos 60, no 2 



(Treads, protectors, etc.. composed mainly 

 of rubber, are to be treated as complete 



Inner tubes: 



For automobiles and motorcycles. . 100 kilos 170. fin 2 



For other vehicles 100 kilos l.Sn.00 2 



Other manufactures of rubber «'/ fa'. 10"; 



33. Rubber belting 100 kilos 30.00 2 



54. Manufactures of asbestos combined or not with 

 rubber (Backing), tubes and pipes of rubber. 



r.jl-ber tubes for artificial flowers ad ral. 57c 



64 Elastic tissues mi.xed with cotton silk, etc.. cotton 



predoininating 1 ... 100 kilos 320.00 3 



Nnte — Rubbered textile fabrics specially manufactured for making cord 

 fi'lets are free of dutv. However, imports of these fabrics can only take 

 iilace through the custom houses designated for the purpose, and subject 

 to the imiinrters provins to the satisfaction of the customs that the fabrics 

 arc really intended for the rbove-mentioned purpose. 

 DENMARK. 



By a decree of the Royal Danish Government of June 29, 

 1920, the restrictions on the exportation of rubber tires and 

 rubber tubes for motor vehicles have been removed. 



GERMANY. 



According to the "Deutsche AUgcmeine Zeilung," Germany, 

 with the object of regulating its foreign trade, has had recourse 

 to the ad valorem system of duties on exports. The duty on all 

 kinds of rubber and rubber goods is two per cent of the value, 



whicli varu 

 many. 



MEXICO. 



The Mexican "Diario Oficial," issue of June 30, 1920, contains 

 the changes in the Mexican schedule of import duties which went 

 into effect July 1, 1920. Of special importance are the reductions 

 in duty on rubberized cloth and waterproof clothing, shown in 

 the following comparative table (the normal value of the Mexican 

 peso is $0.498.S: a kilo is 2.2046 pounds) : 



New Old 

 Duty, Duty, 

 Pesos Pesos 



kTio. ^flo. 



Item 



Article. 



of 



grade 



cloth 



713A. Rubberized cloth of linen, hemp, and similar fibers, 

 wool, or silk, dutiable at 50 per cent of the rate 

 on corresponding cloth 



(•) 



*Former classification uncertai 



The original decree provided for the doubling of the duty on 

 rubber tires for automobiles and trucks. This change, however, 

 was abrogated by the decree of July 12 and the former rates are 

 now in effect. 



CONDITIONS IN FRENCH INDO-CHINA. 



Special Correspondence. 



THE ECONOMIC ONDiTiON of Indo-China has never been so good 

 as it is at present. The country has progressed, industries 

 are growing, the country's products, among which are rice, pepper, 

 minerals and rubber, are in great demand and the rate of exchange 

 of the piaster, the local coin unit, is high. Altogether there is 

 extraordinary prosperity in this French colony. 



In the face of all this it conies as a shock to read in the 

 April number of the "Bulletin du Syndicat des Piantcurs de 

 Caoutchouc de I'Ind.ochine," telegrams in which the necessity of 

 a inuch-reduced rate of exchange is urged if the plantation indus- 

 tries in this country are not to be ruined. 



The piaster, a silver coin, had before the war a value of approx- 

 imately 2.50 francs. At the present time, however, the rate has 

 reached the abnormal figure of 14.50 francs, giving the piaster, 

 which normally is equal to about half an American dollar, a value 

 greater than that of the dollar. The plantation industries, except 

 rice, are suffering severely, for the high value of the piaster 

 makes their products, rubber particularly, two and three times 

 as expensive to produce as the like products from Malaya or the 

 Netherlands East Indies. 



As a remedy, the Chamber of Agriculture, Chamber of Com- 

 merce and the local Rubber Planters' Association have addressed 

 a letter to the new Governor General, M. Maurice Long, sug- 

 gesting means of improving the situation. It seems that there 

 is a great shortage of rice throughout the East. Indo-China has 

 a bumper rice crop and can export to the value of 225,000,000 

 piasters. It is now suggested to levy an export tax of three 

 per cent of the rice, the funds thus obtained to be used to aid 

 agriculturists, rubber planters, etc. 



THE RUBBER MARKET AT MARSEILLES. 



Letters between a Parisian rubber broker and the President of 

 the Colonial Institute at Marseilles have been published in a 

 recent issue of the "Bulletin des Planteurs de Caoutchouc de 

 findochine," and reveal certain conditions existing in the Mar- 

 seilles rubber market that are not only detrimental to rubber 

 planters in Indo-China, but will prove a disadvantage to Mar- 

 seilles as a port of entry for rubber. 



The Parisian broker declares that when making tare allow- 

 ances the local importers from Indo-China give the weight author- 

 ized by the sworn weighers. The weighers, however, do not 

 weigh each case in a lot. br.t give an average weight based on 

 the actual weight of, say 10 per cent of the cases. As this 



