Englishman's word
Sir: I have read much in your pages recently about the value, of the pound sterling and the curreaa problems in the British economy, but I wonder if you know how,eXT asperating and frustrating it is,,for even Englishmen's most .ferf vent well-wishers to do business with them. In recent years I have written many letters to many advertising manufacturers in England asking how I can obtain their products. I have never received a reply from any of them. For a long time I have been a regular cash customer of a famous English firm of booksellers. Because of the in, creasing deterioration in surface mails from England, the delay in the delivery of books has bean scandalous, sometimes amounting to more than six months. During the long waiting-period, however, although I kept the firm fully informed of the non-arrival of its merchandise, I received dunning letters from its credit manager demanding payment for books that the English postal authorities were unable to deliver, and considering the inordinate period of non-delivery to constitute an unreasonable extension of credit to me. I had to resort to a very frank expression of opinion and statement of fact before I could obtain redress.
Nine months ago I paid a year's subscription to a famous London Sunday newspaper. With a request for its renewal for a further year I am now informed that the subscription expires in less than ten months because the price of the publication was increased during the subscription period.
The payment of my subscription in advance constituted a contract. Having already paid the money I have fulfilled it and cannot break it, but the other party seeks to break it or to alter its terms to suit his convenience at will. Perhaps it is scarcely worth while any lc.nger to ask Englishmen to consider the legality or morality of policies of
this kind, but they had better wake up to the fact that they are commercially intolerable.
These are trivial matters of purely personal concern, but I live with the sad thought that they are symptomatic of the basic sickness of England and the English today, and that they suggest a reason why the streets of Canadian cities are crowded with Japanese cars and motor-cycles, but English vehicles are as rare as wasps in winter, a fulfilled English contract, or an Englishman's kept word.
G. L. Bayliss 8585 Cramer Drive, Chilliwack, Canada.
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