considerable proportion of reclaimed rubber is used in their manu- 
facture. The machinery is comparatively inexpensive, a factory 
needing about £10,000 capital. There is a considerable demand 
for rubber soles and heels throughout the world, but it is im- 
possible to obtain any reliable estimate of the amount of crude 
rubber absorbed in this industry. In the United States, in which 
the manufacture js on a very large scale 5,591 tons of crude rubber 
were absorbed in 1928* in the manufacture of soles and heels, being 
1.4 per cent. of the total absorption of crude rubber, and 9.6 per 
cent. of the amount of crude rubber absorbed in the manufacture 
of rubber goods other than tyres and tubes. Since 1927 , the manu- 
facture of rubber composition soles and heels has greatly increased. 
These are mainly produced in Canada, see paragraph 78, and the 
United States, but chiefly for export. The recent increase in the 
2xports of these articles from these two countries is very noticeable. 
[n the export returns of the United States they are included with 
rubber soles and heels, but in the Canadian returns rubber soles 
and heels are not specified. A similar kind of composition sole and 
heel is also being made in the United Kingdom. 
inter- 
national 
trade. 
Exports of 
the United 
Kingdom 
and the 
United 
Ntotas 
61. The United States and Canada are the largest exporters of 
rubber soles and heels, and there are considerable exports from the 
United Kingdom, France and Germany. Other countries also ex- 
port smaller quantities of soles and heels chiefly to their neigh- 
bouring countries—Czecho-Slovakia, Belgium, Russia and Austria 
are the chief exporters in this group. In the export trade returns, 
however, only the United States and the United Kingdom specify 
the exports of rubber soles and heels. In the returns of most of the 
other producing countries they are included with other articles 
and are indistinguishable. 
62. The table on the following page shows the exports of rubber 
soles and heels from the United States and from the United 
Kingdom, in 1928, as well as the principal markets for them 
arranged in descending order of importance. The total values of 
shese exports in 1927 were :— 
£ 
United Kingdom ... . - 76,040 
United States  ... .e “. a. sit 392,137 
The United States exports in 1928 were 27 per cent. greater 
than in 1927 
a 
See paragraph 20.