350 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1915. 



people should make up their minds to get accustomed to "war 

 rubber' as they have to "war bread." Necessity forced "war 

 bread" upon the population of Germany and it is very likely that 

 it will be the same for "war rubber." People will get used to 

 both and will continue to use both after the war is over. 



THE DUTCH EAST INDIES. 



GERMAN CABLE MANUFACTURERS FORM POOL. 



German manufacturers of electric cables have formed an impor- 

 tant syndicate combining all the large concerns engaged in this 

 line of manufacture. The important firm of Brown, Boven and 

 Co., which last year took over the J. Walken plant, at Cologne, 

 and turned it into a cable factory, has joined the pool. 



A RECENT EDITORIAL FROM A GERMAN TRADE JOURNAL. 



\n editorial paragraph from a recent issue of a German 

 paper devoted to the bicycle and motor car trade runs as fol- 

 lows: 



"Naturally, the war has paralyzed the activity of our indus- 

 tries and of our trade, but we should not paint the future too 

 black. Quite aside from the purely humane point of view, 

 which niake> us wish for the end of all this suffering, our sin- 

 cere wish for our commerce and our industries is that the 

 present year may bring the end of the war and a happy and 

 enduring peace. Of course, the future peace will not heal all 

 wounds immediately, especially in the case of concerns en- 

 gaged in export, but we confidently hope that, when the war 

 ends, we will be able to find plenty of profitable work supply- 

 ing the demands of the home market, replacing what has been 

 destroyed by the war. In time the industries of the world will 

 bloom again, and we hope that German industry and German 

 export trade will get the share which heretofore they have ob- 

 tained through their skill and energy. Our industries have been 

 holding out through all these difficulties and they will hold out 

 until the victorious end for which the armies and navies of 

 Germany and Austria-Hungary, like ourselves, are fighting." 



RUBBER CONDITIONS IN AUSTRIA. 



A somewhat difficult situation has been brought about in the 

 German rubber export trade to Austria. The war office has 

 stopped the export of certain rubber goods from Germany to 

 Austria, and Austrian manufacturers have therefore been thrown 

 back on their own resources. Rubber bags and cushions and 

 articles of this description are now manufactured in larger quan- 

 tities, but a general shortage in rubber manufactured goods is 

 expected very soon, as the Austrian government demands large 

 supplies of tires from the manufacturers and compels them to 

 give up any other manufacture but that of tires. The German 

 rubber manufacturers, who have large stocks of all surgical 

 rubber goods, are trying now to induce the German war office to 

 lift the embargo on such goods as far as Austria is concerned. 



GERMANY COULD HAVE USED "TROLIUS" CARGO. 



In a recent newspaper article on the rubber trade and the 

 war, Mr. John McEwan, chairman of the Rubber Growers' As- 

 sociation, commented on the sinking of the "Trolius," with her 

 cargo, which included 1.300 tens of crude rubber, by the German 

 cruiser "Emden." He pointed out what a help this quantity of 

 rubber would have been in relieving the present German rub- 

 ber famine if, instead of sinking it. the "Emden" had been able 

 to seize it and get it to some port in Germany. 



RUBBER PLANTATIONS IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 



The rubber plantations in German East Africa, which were 

 planted in 1913. are progressing satisfactorily although some of 

 the older trees have been damaged by the winds and some de- 

 stroyed by cryptogamous insects. 



RUBBEK STATISTICS PREPARED BY THE MEDAN CHAMBER OF 



COMMERCE. 

 /^\X July 1, 1914, the rubber plantations on the east coast of 

 ^^ Sumatra covered 244,203 acres, of which 40,000 acres were 

 producing. There were 3,305 planted acres in 1905 ; 73,826 in 

 1910, and 239,650 in 1913. In the Cap Tamiang district rubber 

 cultivation was first undertaken in 1909, when 2,250 acres were 

 planted. In 1913, 14,240 acres were under cultivation. 



In 1913, 7,543,142 pounds of plantation rubber and 30,153 

 pounds of wild rubber were exported from the east coast. 

 During the first six months of 1914 the exports from this coast 

 amounted to 5,073,950 pounds. The greatest part of this rubber 

 was shipped to London. Other ports to which shipments were 

 made were Amsterdam, New York, Antwerp, Hamburg, Rot- 

 terdam, Havre and Bremen. 



In 1913, the rubber plantations of the Malay Peninsula cov- 

 ered 708,545 acres and produced 61,971,800 pounds of rubber. 



Dutch capital invested in rubber undertakings in the Dutch 

 East Indies amounted in 1913 to $26,753,301, while foreign capi- 

 tal similarly invested aggregated $85,316,419, of which $69,055,198 

 was issued. 



Imports of plantation rubber into Holland increased from 

 10,560 pounds in 1907 to 218,020 pounds in 1910, to 1,866,700 

 pounds in 1912 and to 3,919,900 pounds in 1913. Meanwhile, 

 imports of wild rubber showed i inly a slight increase, from 

 2,077,000 pounds in 1907 to 2.917,200 pounds in 1913. In the 

 last 12 years imports of raw rubber into Holland have increased 

 100 per cent. 



Increased quantities of rubber were exported from the Dutch 

 East Indies to Japan in 1914, and were sold at fair prices 

 compared with those obtained in that country for Para sheet; 

 Para sheet bringing 1.20 yen [about 60 cents], and Borneo 

 sheet 1.15 yen [about 57 cents]. 



DUTCH INDIES A FIELD FOR AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE TIRES. 



Imports of automobiles and accessories by the Dutch East 

 Indies show this market to be well worth the attention of the 

 American manufacturers. Statistics for 1913 give the number 

 of automobiles imported during that year at 1260, valued at 

 $1,638,000, of which 490 came from the Netherlands, American 

 cars, of which 250 valued at $250,000 were imported, coming 

 second on the list. When it comes to tires, the American makes 

 were very inadequately represented, only $8,000 of the total tire 

 imports of $590,000 coming from the United States. At 

 the close of the year, six different tires were represented in 

 Java, of which but one was from the United States. The value 

 of the American tires imported is thus entirely disproportionate 

 to that of the cars from this country, and as the people of the 

 Dutch East Indies are evidently quite deeply interested in the 

 motor car, the market is one that it should pay American manu- 

 facturers to cultivate. 



Mr. E. de Kruyff, representative of the Netherlands East 

 India Government at the Panama-Pacific International Exposi- 

 tion, is interested in opening up direct trade relations between 

 Netherlands East India and manufacturers in the United States. 

 If addressed, in care of the Exposition, San Francisco, he will 

 be glad to furnish manufacturers commercial information con- 

 cerning the country he represents. 



Tandjong Rubber Co., Limited, at the seventh annual general 

 meeting reported 545,267 pounds of rubber harvested at an all-in 

 cost of Is. 4.42d. The gross selling price was 2s. 2.73d. The 

 year's net profit was £24,176, 0s. 7d., making with £5,401, 12s. 7d. 

 carried forward 129,577, 13s. 2d. available for distribution. It 

 was proposed to pay a dividend of 8 per cent., place £10,000 to 

 reserve and carry £7.577 13s. 2d. to next accounting. A crop 

 of 780,000 pounds is the estimate for next year. 



