The City and the Election SIR,—In his article in your
issue for March 11 Nicholas Davenport in his first paragraph refers.to .. this sort of irrational fear ...' which he intimates would echo round the City during the election weeks.
If Mr_ Davenport would be good enough to let us
now one helpful action or piece of legislation that ndustry has received from the hands of the Labour :overnment I shall be interested to read it. So far the ,nly effects of this administration have been to in- :rease the costs of industry directly, and by added ldministrative burdens indirectly, as well as massively increasing the proportion of taxation on industry's shoulders, the latter all wrapped up in the most corn- olicated Finance Act that has ever been put on the statute book. This, quite apart from the fact that no one yet knows the rate of corporation tax for its first year while the Inland Revenue is forced to admit that there are points of such complexity that they cannot ittempt to give a reading in saying that these matters -nust be tested before the courts of law.
As an instance of what needs to be done one has but to refer to the information published both in the press and on television about the comparisons be- tween Europort and London Docks, where the latter employ 50 per cent more men to be open a little more than a quarter of the time to handle approximately two-fifths of the tonnage. Sir. as you will see from our address we are not more than a couple of miles from the docks and yet it has been our experience on more than one occasion in recent years to find that, in sending to old and valued customers in Australia, more than half of the carriage cost is entailed in get- ting the goods from our factory into the hold of the ship in London docks. The journey over the remain- ing 12,000 miles costs, in other words, slightly less than half the total carriage cost.
B. ENGERT
Engert & Rolfe Ltd., Barchester Street, London, E14
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