NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Q INCE we wrote last week the Government's Bill against 1.7 " profiteering " has been modified. When Sir Auckland Geddes introduced the Bill before the Select Committee on High Prices (instead of introducing it, according to custom, in the House of Commons) he introduced it wrong. We cannot honestly say, however, that the changes, though they make the Bill less objectionable than it was, have saved it from being a thoroughly obnoxious and dangerous measure. In the House of Commons there has bean constant and bewildering fluctuation. It is now proposed that the Board of Trade shall appoint a Central Tribunal with a lawyer as Chairman. This Tribunal will be composed of persons with expert knowledge of manufacturing processes and of the wholesale and distributing trade. It will conduct a general investigation into the cause of high prices, and into alleged " profiteering," and will of course conduct its business privately, otherwise no valuable evidence could be given and its proceedings would be futile.
