November 1, 1914.J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



59 



CRUDE RUBBER CONTRABAND. 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GC. 



No. 25 West 45th Street. New York. 

 CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORI.D. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vol. 51. 



NOVEMBER 1, 1914. 



No. 2 



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COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 

 Entered at the New York postoffice as mail matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



SOME SPECIAL FEATURES IN THIS NUMBER. 



A COMPLETE index of the contents of this issue will 

 be found on page 116. This paragraph is intended 

 simply to eall attention to a few of the special features. 

 Mr. Leo E. Miller, who accompanied Colonel Roosevelt 

 on his South American explorations a year ago, describes 

 and illustrates, on pages 62 to 65, the gathering of rub- 

 ber as he saw it in Brazil and British Guiana. 



Dirigibles and aeroplanes are playing a prominent part 

 in the present war, and an authorative article, fully il- 

 lustrated, on the method of testing balloon fabrics will 

 be found on pages 69 to 72. Six pages, from 89 to 94, 

 are devoted to rubber goods that have recently come on 

 the market and to new machinery for use in rubber fac- 

 tories. The latest discoveries of the rubber chemists re- 

 ceive two pages — 67 and 68. The papers read at the late 

 London Rubber Conference are briefly described by a 

 member of that body on pages 98 and 99. 



The effect of the war on the rubber trade in England 

 and on the Continent is a matter of supreme intere-t to 

 American rubber manufacturers. The English situation 

 is described by two resident correspondents on pages 

 95 to 97: while conditions in Germany are given in con- 

 siderable detail on pages 101 and 102. 



1 I 'I II status of crude rubber as viewed by the belliger- 

 *■ ents has undergone several changes since the be- 

 ginning of hostilities. At firsl onlj tires, dirigibles, aero- 

 planes and fabrics employed in their manufacture were 

 put on the contraband list. Then, late in September, the 

 British ( iovernment added crude rubber to the list of con- 

 ditional contrabands. That is. it could he exported to cer- 

 tain ports in Europe — those of France, Belgium, Russia, 

 Spain and Portugal — but to no others. Early in October 

 the French Government placed crude rubber among the 

 absolute contraband articles, and later in the month the 

 British Government practically made all plantation rub- 

 ber contraband by decreeing that no shipments from the 

 Ear East plantations under British control should be 

 made anywhere except to London. This was followed a 

 few days ago, according to cables received in New York, 

 by the prohibition of all exports of crude rubber from an 

 English port. In other words, the British Government 

 decreed that all rubber from British controlled planta- 

 tions should go to England and stay there, at least for 

 the present. 



It was given out that the requirements of the allied 

 armies would he sufficient to absorb practically the whole 

 plantation production for the next six months. It was 

 stated that the British and French militar\ authorities 

 would need a new equipment of tires for the quarter 

 million motor transport vehicles now being used in the 

 war. and that there would be a great demand for water- 

 proof ground sheets for the troops ; for rubber boots, to 

 be used in digging trenches ; for all kinds of surgical ap- 

 pliances, and for various other articles incident to military 

 operations. 



But will England really require for her own use and 

 for that of the Allies all the plantation rubber which nor- 

 mally should be shipped during the next ^ix months? 

 According to estimates made earlier in the year, the 

 plantation output for the next half year should amount 

 io thirty-five thousand tons. Now, during the first six 

 months of the present year England imported a little 

 over thirty-five thousand tons and exported a little over 

 twenty-nine thousand tons, retaining for her own manu- 

 facturing purposes less than seven thousand tons. In other 

 words, during the first half of the present year England's 

 consumption of crude rubber amounted to a little over 

 a thousand tons per month: and she now practically 

 announces that during the next six months her rubber 

 consumption will amount to six thousand tons per month, 



