There has been a great outcry at the high price
of clothes and at the large profits made by the woollen trade. The Report of a Board of Trade Committee, published on Tuesday, showed that the Government Kaki not fairly be blamed. During the war the Government bought up the whole wool clip of Australia, the chief source of supply, and put the woollen trade under a rigorous control, both for output and for price. Clothes. therefore, and especially Army uniforms, were artificially cheap while the control lasted. Last April the Government decided to restore a free market, and began to sell their immense stocks of wool by auction. The demand for wool from the Continent and from America was so urgent that very high prices were realized. The mice of woollens was, therefore, advanced. West Riding manufacturers were overwhelmed with foreign orders for cloth, irrespective of cost, and could charge what they pleased. The British public found clothes becoming -eery dear, and began to complain of "profiteering."
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