MAY 193 



shares, or their employe's, had been prosecuted and fined for 

 selling foreign hams as home-grown. Accordingly I addressed the 

 following letter to the secretary : 



'SiR, I beg to enclose a cutting from to-day's Times, from 



which it would seem that have been heavily fined in a London 



police court for selling foreign hams, &c., as Irish, Wiltshire, 

 and York. 



'As (i) a shareholder, (2) a customer of several years' standing, 

 (3) a British farmer and a producer of hams and bacon, and (4) 

 a person who when in London has, unfortunately for himself, 



purchased and consumed pig-products at , I wish to ask what 



explanation your directors have to give of the circumstances set 

 out in the enclosed cutting and in reports in other issues of the 

 Times ? ' 



To this epistle I received an answer requesting me kindly to 

 suspend my judgment pending an inquiry, which the directors 

 intended to hold directly after the holidays. Accordingly I 

 suspended it, and in due course the directors, having held their 

 inquiry, issued a circular to the shareholders which, in my humble 

 opinion, was an unconvincing document. After reading it, indeed, 

 my judgment still remains suspended. There may be a satisfactory 

 explanation of the peculiar proceedings detailed in the police 

 court, although I have not seen one, therefore it would be unfair 

 to take it off its peg at present. 



1 But leaving aside this particular case, it is, I fear, beyond 



1 Here, by way of example, are a couple of instances cut from the Times 

 and Globe respectively on consecutive days in April 1899. I may mention that 

 in past years when in London I have, I believe, myself purchased articles of 

 food from this English Farmers' Association under the impression that I was 

 supporting British industries : 



' At West London there was a batch of summonses, taken out at the 

 instance of the Butter Association, against shopkeepers for selling adulterated 

 butter, and Mr. Rose, the magistrate, who heard them, took the opportunity 

 of stating that the fines would be gradually increased until the maximum pre- 

 scribed by the Act of Parliament was reached. In nearly all the cases the 

 excuse was that a mistake was made in serving margarine instead of pure butter. 



