Buy British?
SIR,—As a Rhodesian not far removed from residence and upbringing in the old country, I feel obliged to comment on the standard of workmanship evident in many and varied manufactured articles of England today. My firm of electrical and mechanical engineers has recently received stocks of such varied items as transformers, lamp- stands and refrigerators—all of such indifferent standard that one wonders when, if ever, British pride of workmanship will re-assert itself. The transformers (most costly) suffered from faulty assembly; the lampstands did not accord to sample and " dripped " /heir varnish lacquer; any one refrigerator costs the firm more in free maintenance under guarantee than twenty similar-priced American products.
My own car, not one year old and most diligently maintained, has had to have its front seats re-covered with rexine; the office pencil- sharpener ended its brief career after four months; armatures on many of the electric motors we import require rewinding after a negligible lapse of time—all " made in England." On top of all this the average manufacturer cannot be bothered with our complaints.
Whatever the excuses, such production cannot but adversely affect Britain overseas. I begin to ponder the desirability of belonging to the sterling bloc—when dollar products are so much more dependable and, as a country, we earn more dollars than we spend. " Buy British " is fast coming to mean " Buy a pup." That is a real tragedy.
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