OWNER'S RISK 237 



conditions of conveyance, and for safeguarding the position 

 of traders who consign goods at owner's risk rates. 



On 13th December the Council sent delegates to a deputa- 

 tion arranged by the Mansion House Association to the 

 President of the Board of Trade (Mr. Lloyd George), to ask 

 him to introduce the Railways (Contracts) Bill as a Govern- 

 ment measure. The President said : "I think you have 

 made out a grievance, and you have also made out a case 

 for something being done at the earliest possible moment 

 to redress it. You may depend 'upon it that I will use all 

 the influence I can with the Government in order to induce 

 them to deal effectively with this matter." 



1907. 



The above-mentioned Bill was introduced by Mr. F. W. 

 Lambton at the request of the Darlington Chamber of 

 Agriculture, and a resolution approving of it was passed 

 by the Council on 29th January. It was read a second time, 

 referred to the Standing Committee on Trade without a 

 division, and reported without amendment, but made no 

 further progress. It was down as the third order for 14th 

 June, but, as certain railway representatives developed a 

 sudden interest in the measures which preceded it, this Bill 

 was talked out. The sympathy expressed by Mr. Lloyd 

 George in the previous December did not therefore materialise 

 into active help. 



The Mansion House Association arranged a conference on 

 18th February between Chambers of Commerce, of Agri- 

 culture and other Traders' Associations. The Council were 

 represented by the Secretary. Resolutions were unanimously 

 carried calling attention to the fact that the combination 

 into which the railways had entered violated the conditions 

 on which such companies had acquired their statutory powers 

 and was contrary to public policy, inasmuch as it tended to 

 destroy competition, while calculated to invest the companies 

 Avith an uncontrolled monopoly of the carriage of merchandise. 

 The resolutions further affirmed that these combinations and 

 arrangements demanded the immediate consideration of 



