BRITISH GOVERNMENT'S PROFITEERING.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3397, 30 January 1920, Page 5

BRITISH GOVERNMEN T'S PROFITEERING.

.__——-¢..._—. “NO WORK FOR THE HANGMAN.-”

Under the above quotation, the‘ Christchurch; Sun comments racily‘on! the recent disclosures regarding the} British Government ’s profiteering in] wool and other commodities. Our‘ southern coiitempomi-y rcmarks:— It is no use saying one thing aboutl the alleged wool scandals in Britain! and meaning another. If the profits; made are a tithe of those reported to‘; have been made somebody ought to be hanged. That is the plain English of} the situation. But it is not moral indigiiatioii that is -the Donlinion’s chief emotion at the present moment. The, average producer is like the average, eonsunu-r——'a.ltruisnl is not his prime massicn. has :1 20 per cent fcebl ing of shame that profiteering is so rampant, and a. 50 per cent emotion of‘ disappointment that he has ‘been virtuous for absolutely nothing. Con-I sumers thiiik they ‘Ere shocked at sucfil mercantile depravity, when in reality]

they are merely enraged at being the] victims; and in precisely the same way, I and with precisely the same niolth-eaten morality, the wool—grower thinks his‘ he'a.l'f is bleeding for the Homeland’s} shivering widows and orphans, when it | is throbbing with vexation because the profits seem_ all ‘to have gone to the other fellow. But that is not what we set out to say. Like New Zealand_ Britain has some very severe laWs against. profiteering. It is not necessary that a sale should be actually effected: a profiteer is a. man who asks a price that would give an unreason~ ableable pr-ofit—and anyone‘ at all can lay 'a. charge provided he does it in“| writing within four days. The com—, plaint. then comes before a local tribu— i 11:11, on which the working classes must be adequately represen'f'cd,, and if a prima facie c'as3 is made out, witnesses may be summoned, evidence taken on oath, books and documents called for,’ and the oiiender sent willy-nilly before a Court of Summary Jurisdiction. But there is no law there 01' here "to guard the guardians. You can’t fine, imprison, hang, draw, or quarter the Government which violates its "own laws. You can’t follow every razor or reel of cotton or bootlace or pound of Scotch! glue back and back past endless pro—; testers till you unearth at last the‘ criminal sco.un.drel——that is to say, you ; can’-t do it with dignity and efiective‘ ness. You can’t always drop dowui like a hundredweight of bricks on a.’ shopkeeper “who was away at the! time, and unfortunately did not notice { before he went away that his assistant had misplaced the“ price tickets”! You can think what you like, but you cant always do what you Would like! to the llotel—keeper who explains that! the “watered whisky was drawn inadvertently from his own private bot-I tle.” Aiwl strangely enough in Britiain, ! you r=an’t take proceedings of any kind" at all, unless -the pifofiteering, or at-‘ tempted profiteering, is on articles‘ specified in an official schedule issued! by the Board of Trade. It requires no 1 great effort of imagination to conceive ; of the possibilities here. Then, finally, l the complaint falls to the ground if.‘ the price asked for covers “servicesl rendered.” Buy your steak in the Q butchers’ show, and you have the law behind you. Eat. it grilled in a restaurant. ‘and you are in th.- powers Of HlO Unseen Hand. Much. therefore. as wei would like to see 17 havzging match “to l enr:oura;:e the others.” we are doomed I quite m=vr-tainly ‘.O disappointment. !