Persistent Pepper The persistence in Parliament and the Press of
questions on the pepper pool debdcle indicates a healthy deter- mination to get to the bottom of an unpleasant business —whatever may be found there. Attention at the same time is being directed to tin, and there is no harm in that. But the two questions are not on all fours, for the Tin Restriction Scheme is an established and recognized fact, though a good deal of mystery invests the buffer pool which forms a constituent part of it. The pepper ramp was speculation pure and simple, and the fact that the commodity whose price the manipulators were trying to force up was a foodstuff aggravates the offence—more as a matter of principle than because a reduced consumption of pepper would gravely undermine health or character. Investigations into the lists of shareholders of the companies concerned have brought the . names of men like Mr. Reginald McKenna and Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen into a prominence no doubt distasteful to them, but the doctrine that a man should know something of how his invested money is being employed is none the worse for a little emphasis. The House of Commons has been assured that the Official Receiver's inquiry into the affairs of one of the firnis involved in the pepper operations will be exhaustive, and plenty of members of the House can be relied- on to see that the probe drives where it should.
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