From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
'Autocar' magazine page featuring articles on the R.A.C. Rally, Japanese motor industry competition, and two-way radios in police cars.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 139\2\ scan0064 | |
| Date | 9th March 1934 | |
| 386 The Autocar March 9th, 1934. THE BRITISH RALLY Record R.A.C. Event Which Starts ON Tuesday, next week, the 400 cars of the British Rally start on their thousand-mile road journey to concentrate at Bournemouth on Thursday. The starting points are London, Bath, Norwich, Leamington, Buxton, Harrogate, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow, and a map showing the paths followed by cars from each of these places would cover practically all the important roads in England. The Harrogate cars start at 1.33 p.m. on Tuesday, journey to Glasgow, Liverpool, Bath and Norwich before reaching Bournemouth. Connie, a 22-year-old Crossley belonging to Mr. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Hasel, who has entered it in the R.A.C. Rally. Last year it went through the Scottish Rally without loss of a mark. Competition From the East Japan Contemplating Four-fold Increase of Motor Industry A SIGNIFICANT cable from Tokyo states that during the last twelve months the Japanese output of automobiles has doubled and that the Japanese industry is budgeting for a four-fold expansion of production in the next two years. It is common knowledge that Japanese competition with Great Britain has been making itself felt in many fields, notably in the export of cotton goods to India and other Eastern markets, where it has been very severe, but it will come as something of a surprise to many people to hear of this threat of new competition to our export trade of motor vehicles. India and the Far East, the countries which have proved most vulnerable to Japanese competition in textiles, have recently been growing rapidly in importance as buyers of British motor vehicles. India and Ceylon increased their imports of British vehicles from 2,700 in 1931 to 6,200 last year. Over the same period British exports to Malaya increased from 670 to 1,300 vehicles, while exports to China rose from 300 to 1,100, and to the Dutch East Indies from 100 to 950. Even in the Philippines the British car has slowly been ousting the American vehicle. Japan, of course, is conveniently situated for supplying the Australian and New Zealand markets, which between them absorbed over 11,500 British vehicles last year, and her heavy purchases of wool, wheat, and dairy produce are being used ruthlessly as a lever to compel the opening of these markets to her manufacturers. If Japan made such an attack on the export trade of motor vehicles, she would depend for her success on very low selling prices, as has been the case with her cotton, silk, and artificial silk industries; it is price and not quality on which she depends to sell her goods. It is popularly supposed that the low prices at which she is able to sell are mainly due to low wage bills and production costs, but this is by no means the whole explanation. The Japanese currency is based on silver, and the present low price of silver, in terms of both gold and sterling, give the yen an artificially low exchange value, at present less than 40 per cent. of its gold parity, which is, of course, in effect a subsidy to the Japanese exporters. Sir Henri Deterding, an exponent of a rational silver policy, points out that if more use can be made of silver, and its price thereby raised in terms of gold and sterling, this artificial depreciation of the yen will be lessened, and Japan's ability to flood foreign markets with very cheap goods will receive a check; at the same time, the purchasing power of would-be buyers of British manufactures, like China, who are also on a silver currency, will be increased. Thus, the possible menace of new Japanese competition will be diminished, and the populous and potentially wealthy countries of the Far East will have a greater buying capacity, which will make them still more valuable markets for exports of British motor vehicles, not to mention other products. "The Autocar" Trophy for cars between 10 and 16 h.p. in the R.A.C. Rally at Bournemouth. Two-way Radio in England Nottingham Police Experimenting in New Wireless Methods TWO-WAY radio on police cars has already been reported in The Autocar. The equipment described recently was used by an American police force and had a very limited range. Two-way radio for police cars is also being tested in this country, but the installation differs very widely from its American counterpart. First, it is not possible for the police to communicate by telephony, and Morse, or similar code, has to be used; secondly, the range is considerably greater. The range of reception is 70 miles around the main transmitter, compared with the range of three to four miles of the American system. The Nottingham police is the force carrying out these experiments as the result of research work by a local amateur radio enthusiast, and, if successful, they will be a tremendous advance in the war on crime. It is hoped that in time the whole of the country will be covered by a network of transmitters so that cars in any part of the country can communicate with their local headquarters after their call has been "relayed" by telephone wire. A22 | ||