THE MERCHANDISE MARKS BILL.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I am glad to see that your correspondent, Mr. G. W.
Schofield, has come forward to justify the assertion put forward by traders in opposing the Bill that, if passed, it would result in some of the supplies being diverted to other countries. He deals only with eggs and traverses the state- ment I made in a letter published in your columns on April 7th to the effect that we probably imported eggs from every country in Europe. On reference to the Return of Trade and Navigation for December last I find that imports are recorded from Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, France and Italy, as well as from China (1,057,000 great hundreds), Egypt (1,259,000 great hundreds), other countries (3,465,000 great hundreds), the total being 18,661,671 great hundreds, as well as 472 cwt. (classified as eggs not in shell). He goes on to say : " Before the War Spain, for example, was an exporter to this country ; but to-day she is our chief competitor for the supply of eggs from Morocco. So far from exporting to this country, Spain now absorbs supplies which used to come here." I find on reference to the Annual Statement of Trade that the imports from Spain were negligible from 1905 to 1909, and that Morocco in 1921 is credited with sending us 417,000, which is certainly well above the average of the years 1905 to 1909.
Surely it is somewhat far-fetched to say that, if the proposed Bill had been enacted, 50,000,000 eggs would have been lost to this country. This argument has been very well answered in a letter from the National Poultry Council, which I cannot do better than quote : " Were the eggs diverted to other countries as a result of the passage of this Bill into law, the result would at once be to lower prices in such other countries and to increase the price in Great Britain ; this would at once have the effect of re-diverting eggs into this country by the ordinary rule of ' supply and demand." The letter goes on to state that even if the importer had to stamp the eggs a recent trial shows that a case containing 1,440 eggs had been unpacked, stamped and repacked in exactly forty Minutes. With regard to the price and supply of eggs, English eggs are now being sold in some parts as low as 9d.
[We have been obliged to curtail this letter.—En. Spec. tutor.]
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