Ai'ril 1, 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



377 



humorously to synthetic rubber, in the following paragraph: 



"The old bogey of synthetic rubber has been trotted out once 

 more during the year, or rather a new one under the old name 

 It looked more serious because there was evidentlj substantial 

 financial backing, but the same melancholj interment closed its 

 ■career. Its chief service was to furnish a peg for writers and 

 orators on rubber topics to hang jokes on, while the extensive 

 derelict factory built to produce it was commandeered bj the 

 war office, with the intention of housing therein several thous- 

 and German prisoners. Threats came from Germany that the 

 chemists there would really at last invent synthetic in retaliation 

 for our stopping their supplies of crude rubber. We are still 

 waiting for it. and so are the German and Austrian cities, in 

 which motor cars and taxicabs are rapidly disappearing from 



the streets." 



Another particularly interesting paragraph in his address re- 

 ferred to the extension of uses to which rubber could be put. 

 He said : 



"The advent of the war has prevented us gaining the benefits 

 from various efforts made to pn note the use of rubber in new 

 directions, and has interfered with some schemes. The govern- 

 ment departments cannot suspend work on the war to test un- 

 tried inventions. There are many such in various stages of de- 

 velopment. There is the rubber so treated that it is to make 

 vessels unsinkable. There is the buffer of rubber that when 

 collisions occur at sea is to give only a gentle and friendly tap, 

 unless in the case of an enemy submarine. 



"'I here is the sheathing of rubber for battleships from which 

 the enemy's shot and shell will rebound, and like an Australian 

 boomerang with damaging effect return to its source. There 

 are the rubber-studded blocks for fixing steel rails in their chairs, 

 to replace the wooden keys now in use. Above all, there are 

 the rubber roadways which the council have undertaken with a 

 view to meet the many calls for more silent and more durable 

 streets." 



The Annual Report has an additional interest in the patriotic 

 service which it shows the association has performed while at 

 the same time extending the uses of rubber. In the fall it 

 furnished the government with a particularly complete ambu- 

 lance, supplied with a number of special features, such as rub- 

 ber buffers and stops, rubber flooring and hot-water bottles, for 

 use in the British expeditionary force. It also supplied the 

 Australian navy with 4.000 rubber life-saving collars, in recog- 

 nition of the good work done for British commerce by the de- 

 struction of the "Emden" ; and it further appealed to the mem- 

 bers of the association to contribute scrap rubber for hospital 

 flooring. One hundred and sixty-nine companies contributed 

 over 45,000 pounds of rubber, which was made into flooring for 

 a number of London hospitals. 



At its annual meeting a new chairman was elected for the 

 Coming year Mr E. I.. Hamilton, who had previously served 

 as vice-chairman of the association. Mr. Hamilton is a director 

 in many large plantation companies in British Malaya and com- 

 bines a practical knowledge of planting with conspicuous busi- 

 ness ability. 



The association during the last year, and particularly during 

 the last eight months, has shown great efficiency under most 

 trying conditions, and there is just ground for the optimism re- 

 garding its future shown by the chairman in his annual address 

 and by others who followed him on that occasion. 



MR. EDWARD P. HAMILTON. 

 The new chairman of the Rubber Growers' Association, of 

 London, Mr. Edward Lawrence Hamilton, celebrated bis 57th 

 birthday on the 4th of March, last. After being educated at 

 the Portora School, he entered business in 1876, at the age of 

 18. Two years later he went to Calcutta and joined the firm of 

 Hoare, Miller & Co., East India merchants, becoming a partner 

 in that house in 1885, and senior partner in India 10 years later. 



lie retired in 1900, and in the same year became a partner in 

 the linn .if I'arrott & Co., San Francisco; but in 1903 he re- 

 turned to England ami assumed the management in London of 

 certain largi i tab in i lie Malay Peninsula. He is now very 

 widely interested in the rubber industry of the Middle East, 

 being chairman of It planting companies, namely, Straits Rub- 

 ber, Rubana, Selaba, I ab Aver, Glenshiel, Kurau. Bagan Serai, 

 Batak Rabit, Sungei I 'num. I heras, Merchiston, Orient Trust, 

 and Windsor. In addition, he is a director of 6 other com 

 panii -. a fi Hows: Penang Rubber Estates, Rubber Plantations 

 Investment Trust, Chersonese Malayan Rubber and Produce 

 Company, Djasinga Rubbei and Traduce, Gula-Kalumpong, and 

 Merchants' Marine Insurance Co. 



So it is very evident that as chairman of the London associa- 

 tion he is a worthy successor of the distinguished leaders in the 

 planting industry who have hitherto occupied that office. 



RUBBER STATISTICS FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



CRUDE 



RUBBER. 



1913. 



Imports prom Quantity. 



Frei ch W.-t Allien ( ns 1,009 



Peru 1,301 



Brazil 11,768 



Gold Coast 667 



Straits Settleme i 'I , Labuan) . 1 5,103 



i • di in. d Malaj Si ites 9,880 



Ceylon 6,705 



i niiei countrii s 19,391 



Value. 



$1,386,018 



2,168,907 



28,910,417 



715,852 

 25,773,987 

 17,189.319 

 11,238,325 

 12,497,313 



Quantity. 



681 



692 



12,385 



252 



21,143 



9,821 



9,361 



13.686 



Value. 



$290,681 



905.548 



16,709,522 



223,801 



25.542.964 



I I 



11,329,329 



Total 



65,824 $99,880,138 67,622 $77,086,854 



Exports to— 



Russia tons 



Germany 



France 



1 '■ iti d States 



Other countries 



6,354 $10,731,630 

 9,729 16.267,323 

 9.132,016 

 26,362,448 



5,308 



17,791 



5,830 



7,507 

 7,073 

 4,936 

 24,179 

 5,379 



$9,053,452 

 8,233,558 

 6,300,443 



28,77 

 6,622,645 



Total 45,012 $72,202,333 49,074 $58,985,221 



Total Imports 

 Total Exports 



i,l IT A PERCHA. 

 ...tans 5.562 $6,669,869 

 444 543,773 



2,617 

 443 



$3,018,325 

 577,328 



MANUFACTURES OF INDIA RUBBER. 



I M PORTS 



Apparel, waterproofed 



Boots and shoes dos. ^im 



Tires and tubes for in. toi cat 

 Tires and tubes for motor cycles. 

 Tires and tubes for cycles 



Tires and tubes urn-numeral, d . . . . 



$31,545 



583,596 



12. 445.991 



545.505 

 41.901 



85,348 



Total $14,138,895 



Exports — 



Apparel, waterproofed $4,970,609 



Boots and shoes dos. pairs 134.314 671,606 



Tires and tubes for motor cars 3,449,979 



Tirt - and tubi 5 foi motoi 196.782 



Tires and tubes foi cycles 2.002.803 



Tires and tubes unenumerated 648.646 



Rubber manufactures, except wa- 

 terproofed apparel, hoots and 



shoes, tires and tubes 8,060,121 



$41,151 



9,210.153 



193.312 



386.478 



58.052 



$10.6 



131.390 



Total $20,000,546 



WATERPROOFED APPAREL. 

 Exports to — 



France 



British South Africa 



British Past Africa 



\ustralia 



New- Zealand 



i Canada 



Other countries 



S3 



765.109 



504.301 

 323,885 



617.415 

 524,024 



Total 54.970.609 



ELECTRIC WIRES AND CABLES— INST"! ATED 

 Imports — 



Submarine cables 



Other telegraph and telephone wires 



and cables $287,951 



Rubber insulated wire and cables 1,843.610 



5.732.211 



' 



$130,539 

 70.121 

 137.746 

 134,181 



904.230 

 $3,765,109 



Total $2,131,561 



Exports — 



Submarine cables $9,265,402 



Other telegraph and telephone wires 



and cables 3. 461. 683 



Rubber insulated wire and cables 2,052,159 



rota! 



$14,779,244 



$9,241 



238.327 

 1.194.594 



' 112.162 



$2,384,896 



1.528,402 

 1,648,094 



$5,561,392 



