PETROL PRICE REDUCTIONS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
The vendors of unbranded petrol, the so-called inde- pendent firms, are claiming that to them is due the credit for the recent welcome reductions in the price of motor spirit. As a matter of fact, these firms have never initiated a reduction in price, but have only lowered their prices when the established firms have lowered theirs. More than that, whenever the price of petrol has been increased the independent firms have followed suit within a few hours.
But there is another side to the picture. Unbranded petrol k only sold in the easily supplied and most remunerative markets. No attempt is made to supply the motorist's needs in villages and small towns, and were we to rely upon unbranded petrol when touring we might be badly let down.
America produces 80 per cent. of the world's petrol and it is she that governs the price. Owing to the development of rich new oilfields there has been a heavy fall in American petrol prices, of which the drop in the United Kingdom has been the reflection. No marketer of spirit in this country is entitled to any share of the motorist's gratitude for the natural operation of the well-known economic law of supply and demand.—I am, Sir, &c., Duneood Farm, Rotherfleld, Sussex. E. T. Ilitowx.
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