TRUTH IN ADVERTISING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—While there is so much talk about the depressed statt of British Industry, it seems that British men of business are sometimes to blame. I see that the publishers of the new Chambers's Encyclopaedia emphasized in their advertisements, in your columns, and elsewhere, that they had employed British Capital, Labour and Material throughout. But the very first thing that 1 see, on opening the volumes, is that the colour plates are printed in Saxony.
Thus this firm is not only employing labour that is under- cutting British labour (and German labour at that), but it has covered up this action by a gross misstatement of fact. Surely something ought to be done to warn the public of this, or at least to prevent them from being further misled.—! am,- Sir, FAIRPLAY. [We submitted this letter to the Waverley Book Co., Ltd., who write as follows :—
"Your courtesy in bringing to our notice this letter makes it imperative that your readers should fully understand the substance of the complaint and the real facts about The New Chambers's Encyclopaedia, and we shall be glad, therefore, if you will publish this reply.
"Firstly, your correspondeht at 'any rate has not been misled,for not only has he not bought The New Chambers's Encycloliaedia; but he has not even written for a free prospectus of the work which we have offered in every advertisement, and which is available to the public to-day free of all cost and obligation.
"Your readers may well ask how one in whom our advertisement created not the slightest interest—even to the extent of asking for a free 32-page illustrated descriptive 'book—can give_ the entirely false impression that he has been victimised into buying, by saying 'the very first thing that I see on opening the volumes.'
Now to deal with the complaint. Some magnificent black and white and colour plates were inserted by us in the Persian Goat binding of The New Chambers's Encyclopaedia, which otherwise is word for word with two other bindings of this new work in which no plates appear. Of these plates, all the black and white and EOMO of the colour are entirely British. There are a few colour plates in each volume on natural subjects, such as birds, fish, etc., which were 'printed in Saxony before the War. These are excellent illustrationi .of subjects which do not change, and in the opinion of experts these plates could not be improved upon. These few Saxony plates were paid for some time before the War and not one penny has been invested in any foreign country for The New Chambers's Encyclo. paedia. " No complaint has been received from the hundreds of purchasers who have had ample time to examine the work. A few complaints to third parties, similar to the above, from people who have not ;shown the least bona-fide interest in our announcement have been directly identified with interested people. We specially mentioned that the New Chambers's is a British product, as a British mime does not necessarily imply a British product. Apart from a few plates in only one of the three bindings of The New Chambers's Encyclo- paedia, this work is All-British, and even before your correspondent's letter arrived we had confined ourselves to the word ` British.'t If any purchaser of The New Chambers's Encylopaedia up to this date has been misled by the plates in question and is thereby dissatisfied with his purchase, we will not only gladly refund his Money and pay return carriage, but also contribute flO for each such case to any recognised hospital to be selected by the corn.; plaining purchaser.
"It is therefore with confidence that we leave this matter to yowl readers' sense of justice, and would advise them always to apply the test of nationality to other encyclopaedias.—We are, Sir, yours faithfully,
THE WAVERLEY BOOK .K.CTODMDPLANY ,
Advisory-Director."]
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