NATIONAL COTTON WEEK .sx Lancashire on Parade .sx THE BEGINNINGS OF CO-OPERATION .sx Lesson from Motor Industry .sx The National Cotton Week , which opens on Monday next , will be the occasion of a more comprehensive effort than ever to make known what the industry can now achieve both in a utilitarian and an sthetic sense .sx It is estimated that over 30,000 traders - wholesale firms , department stores , and smaller retail concerns - will take a definite part in this huge campaign to show that the Lancashire mills and factories still possess remarkable technical resources and command great artistic skill to produce fabrics of a quality and beauty which can be produced nowhere else in the world .sx Perhaps the industry has been a little slow to make this effort , relying upon a reputation which has hitherto been taken for granted .sx During the last ten years , however , it has been increasingly recognised that the industry must raise its voice , as its world rivals have been doing , and make practical demonstration of its capacity .sx Last year Cotton Week preparations were rather hurried ; this year it has been possible to devote more time to them , and one result has been a much more widespread co-operation between the manufacturers and wholesale firms on the one hand and the retailers on the other .sx In the opinion of some people there is need for a considerable movement in this direction .sx One authority , discussing this subject yesterday , pointed to the motor-car industry , in which the producers take the keenest interest in the organisation of selling and keep in the closest touch with and give every possible assistance to the distributors .sx He admitted that the two industries are little akin , but maintained nevertheless that cotton had something to learn from the motor industry which it could adapt to its own peculiar requirements .sx Retailers' Response .sx " We can see in Cotton Week the beginnings of something of the kind , " he said .sx " The manufacturers and wholesale houses are giving greater assistance this year to the retailers to make special displays .sx The suggestion I would make is that they should do it oftener and with more purpose .sx Once a year for a single week is good , but a more sustained effort as the seasons serve would be better .sx " For Cotton Week , however , some big firms are doing well :sx the Calico Printers Association , for example , have arranged for no fewer than 138 special window displays in different parts of the country .sx Some of the bigger manufacturing firms have adopted similar measures .sx The report comes to hand of a firm that has arranged for displays in the kinemas and in the Manchester Hippodrome a number of local mannequins will parade on the stage in the latest designs of cotton dresses before each performance .sx In the trade journals one reads that the effort is receiving sound support by the leading retailers throughout the country .sx Most of the big London stores are organising mannequin parades to show what marvels can be wrought from Lancashire products .sx The White City Revelation .sx The recent Cotton Exhibition at the White City , London , was to many visitors a surprising revelation of the artistic quality which is now achieved in the best Lancashire goods .sx It had hardly been realized that designs which no other artists in the world can better are now applied in sun-fast colourings to inexpensive fabrics selling at 1s .sx a yard and less .sx The pattern designer no longer confines his best skill in inspiration to lordly skills and satins ; he does not disdain the cheaper cotton fabrics .sx Again the production of the better cotton fabrics steadily improves the modern voile , for instance , has better tailoring qualities and does not crease easily .sx The technique of ready-to-wear gown makers has developed greatly in quite recent years .sx One saw at White City , too , a finer taste expanded upon furniture fabrics .sx Great Britain , it was clear , had resources enough to become the undisputed arbiter of cotton fashions throughout the world .sx What was revealed to the thousands at the White City should be manifest to the million next week if only they observe .sx In cotton fabrics British makers are evolving special and distinctive fabrics and designs , and there is evidence of a greater public interest in cotton-wear which manufacturers and distributors may capture completely by a well-organised drive .sx A BANNED PLAY .sx Veto on Cambridge Production .sx ( From Our Correspondent ) .sx CAMBRIDGE , SUNDAY .sx The ban of the Lord Chamberlain has fallen upon the Festival Theatre at Cambridge .sx This is an exercise of authority to which the theatre is not unaccustomed , but on this occasion Mr. Terence Gray and his colleagues are indignant because they cannot understand the reason .sx In their opinion there is no just cause .sx " Roar , China , " by Tretiakov , is the play , and a special translation was submitted .sx The subject is concerned with British gunboats on the Yangtze River , and it is anti-Imperialist in tone but not especially anti-British .sx Produced by Mr. Howard Marshall , it would have been played as a burlesque , and the only effect on the special audience at the Festival Theatre , or any other English theatre for that matter , would have been honest laughter .sx Mr. Frank Birch emphasised that aspect in discussing the play and the decision of the Lord Chamberlain with a " Manchester Guardian " representative to-night .sx Mr. Birch has been a history lecturer at King's College , and he is one of the leaders at the Festival Theatre .sx " There is no political significance for an English audience in this play , " he said , " and to ban the play on general principles , as the Lord Chamberlain has done , is to treat playgoers as children .sx In so far as the play attacks British naval officers , it is no more propaganda for Russian anti-Imperialist ideas than 'H .sx M.S. Pinafore .sx ' Anyone without knowledge of the navy would know that British officers do not talk as do the choristers in this play .sx The anti-Imperialist tone is not directed against British officers .sx They are in the play because a British gunboat patrolled the Yangtze River .sx Tretiakov is a landsman and reveals that he knows nothing about ships .sx There is no sting in " Roar , China " for a British audience , but it is a rattling good melodrama , and it would have been played in the spirit of burlesque .sx The Lord Chamberlain had the script three weeks before he sent us his decision , and the play was in rehearsal when the ban was received .sx I am indignant because plays with infinitely more propaganda from the Russian point of view have been produced .sx If there is the slightest suspicion of anything 'Bolshie' a section of the press raises an outcry , but to suppose that there is anything subversive in this play is childish .sx It has been acted in America , where they are much more alarmed at Russian propaganda than we are .sx " DANCING IN PEKING .sx And Better Business .sx Peking is just beginning to discover the attractions of jazz .sx Modern dancing , which long ago ceased to be a novelty in Shanghai , is still a comparatively new thing among the more conservative Northern Chinese , but there is no questioning its popularity now that the craze has caught on here .sx A year ago the former capital could boast not more than tow or three dance halls , and the best of these could offer nothing more ambitious than a gramophone in the way of music .sx To-day there are nearly a score of Chinese hotels and restaurants which provide dancing facilities for their patrons , and apparently do very well out of it .sx Several of them are equipped with Russian orchestras which are in some cases superior to those at the larger hotels under foreign management .sx There resorts are frequented by well-to-do Chinese of all ages ; in addition to the younger modern set it is not unusual to see venerable grandmothers tottering along on bound feet to watch the rising generation disporting itself on the dance floor .sx Usually there are a dozen or more attractive Chinese girls on hand as dancing partners .sx The young woman act also as teachers , for a Chinese is not a whit embarrassed at trying his first steps in full view of a crowded audience .sx So keen is the demand for partners that several dance halls have found it expedient to give a few warning taps on the drum before the orchestra strikes up .sx At this signal those who aspire to dance race across the floor to secure a partner , unsuccessful competitors retiring gracefully from the scene before the music begins .sx Peking's educational authorities are becoming alarmed at the growing freedom with which the young of both sexes are beginning to mingle in a social way .sx In an effort to stem the tide of modernism , Professor Liu Fu , principal of the women's college of the National University here , has issued an order prohibiting students of his college from visiting cabarets on pain of expulsion .sx Parents have been advised of the new rule and urged to co-operate with the college authorities in securing its enforcement , but there has been no perceptible diminution of dance-hall devotees .sx On the contrary , the business is proving so profitable that the municipal authorities are considering whether it cannot be made to yield something in the way of revenue , and a tax on all dancing parties held in public places has been proposed .sx A Turn for the Better .sx There are other indications that , after several years of depression , accentuated since 1928 by the removal of the Chinese capital to Nanking , economic conditions in Peking are beginning to show a general improvement .sx Public utility companies report rising revenues , due to a substantial increase in population , and theatre managers speak of the present season as unprecedented in recent years .sx Native theatres and kinemas are filled to capacity at each performance , and record business is being done by restaurants and tea-houses .sx It is only the baser haunts of pleasure that are still affected by the slump .sx Recent political changes have had a good deal to do , though in an indirect way , with this sudden boom .sx The Manchurian occupation of the Peking-Tientsin area has undoubtedly been a stabilising influence , besides bringing more money into the city , and the fact that Peking no longer represents a prize to be striven for by warring factions makes it in the eyes of many a more desirable place of residence .sx House rents , too , have declined to the point where people of moderate means are able to live here much more spaciously than would be possible further south .sx Even in Tientsin , but 80 miles distant , the cost of living is considerably higher - so much so that the railway authorities are planning , by the inauguration of a fast express service between Peking and Tientsin , to make it possible for residents of the port to transfer their families here , themselves travelling to and fro between the two cities .sx Apart altogether from adventitious circumstances of this kind , it must be recorded to the credit of the local business community that of late it has been doing a good deal to help itself .sx In this respect perhaps the removal of the capital may prove to have been a blessing in disguise .sx For centuries politics have ranked as Peking's chief industry ; there has come now a general realisation that the old capital must learn to stand upon its own two feet as an educational and tourist centre .sx With the objective of encouraging native products , several industrial exhibitions have been held here recently under joint foreign and Chinese auspices .sx Plans to make the city still more attractive to visitors are continually under discussion , and there is talk of opening an international exhibition here on April 1 , 1932 .sx BLACKPOOL GOES ON HOLIDAY .sx Blackpool was almost deserted yesterday , the first day of the tradesmen's holiday , and thousands left by road an rail for all parts of the country .sx From early morning the stations were crowded with people who , for the rest of the year , cater for other holiday-makers .sx Trains to Manchester , Liverpool and Yorkshire were packed , and the most popular long-distance excursions were Loch Lomond , Hereford , Birmingham , and London .sx FLOWER SHOW IN MANCHESTER .sx Rich Feast of Colour .sx Northern Counties' Display .sx The Manchester Town Hall had an atmosphere like a greenhouse yesterday , when the Northern Counties Royal Botanical and Horticultural Society's spring show opened .sx