WOOL PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1920, Page 8

WOOL PROFITS.

EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES. (Times Service.) London, Jan. lfi. Extraordinary disclosures o£ woqj profits startled a meeting of the Central Profiteering Committee. Mr. Mac Kinder, a Yorkshire warehouseman, reporting on the results of the official sub-com-mittee's investigations into the cost of standard counts of yarn, said the profit now made ranged from 401) to 3000 per cent, beyond the War Office's former allowance. Spinners' own figures were quoted in every instance. Mr, Sydney Webb commented on the unpublished report of the worsted committee. He said it was common talk that Yorkshire spinners were making thousands per cent, profit. When the public knew the results of the accountants' investigation of the books of the spinners and other sections of the trade there would be a violent expression of indignation. " COLOSSAL PROFITS BY GOVERNMENT. London, Jan. 17. It was disclosed before the Central Profiteering Committee that the profits made above the fair margin fixed by tlie War Office varied from 400 to 3200 per cent. It is alleged that the Government is also making- colossal profits. A committeeman who participated in the wool investigation deplored tie Board of Trade's failure to publish sectional reports. Sidney Webb said that when the public learned the facts there will be a howl of execration. What is happening with the worsted yarn is also happening with cotton and metals. The sub-committees reported that there was no evidence of trust profiteering in fish and tobacco. GREAT INTEREST EXCITED. AUSTRALASIAN GROWERS. I SUFFERING. London, January 19. The question of wool profiteering continues to excite great interest. The Profiteering Committee on Trusts is considering the question of publication of the reports hereon.

Meanwhile the Director-General of Raw Materals officially admits that the Government is selling wool from Australia and New Zealand at profits running into many millions sterling. It is said the Government is selling better qualities at,prices very much higher than the prices fixed hi the Dominions' contract, but. the Dominions understood this would be done after the war, and would receive half tho profits. He declares, as regards wool supply, that Australasia helped more than any other country during (lie war. Then they made practically no profits. He emphasised that at present farmers in Australia and New Zealand were not doing as well as farmers in Britain, South Africa, and India, who were, obtaining top market prices without sharing the profit with the British Government. Moreover, he compared the situation with cotton, pointing out that Egyptian cotton had risen from 27d to 60d per lb, and the Egyptians wire securing the whole profit. He declared that the Government would be committing a great breach of faith unless Australasia now got the benefit of the rise in prices.