The National Mark in Birmingham On Friday, May 80th, the
Birmingham meat whole- salers announced their intention to boycott the National Mark scheme. The Minister for Agriculture asked for an opportunity to discuss the decision, but he was refused. As Mr. Buxton has said, the National Mark scheme has the approval of producers, consumers, and a large proportion of the retail trade, and can harm nobody but the dishonest tradesman. Wholesalers, and middlemen in general, are therefore putting themselves in a very dangerous position in attempting to oppose it. There are, no doubt, special difficulties in Birmingham, but the Birmingham wholesalers, by exaggerating the high-handedness of the Law and by weakly following the example of certain retailers, are obviously strengthening the case for the Consumers' Council—which presumably they do not want. * * *
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