104 



want our grain must bring their own "envase" to take 

 it away in. 



I venture to suggest that if our pan-bases of prime 

 necessities abroad had to carry with them the ..nJiga- 

 tion to send our own boxes and bags to fetch them 

 away in, we should be the first to criticise, and loud 

 and persistent would be the press campaign denounc- 

 ing the business ineptitude of the firms and Countries 

 favoured with our orders. 



There would be, too, the inevitable demand for a 

 rebate 011 the price in order to compel i^r.te f< r the 

 trouble of remitting the "envase 7 ', and goodness knows 

 how many cases of dispute over the payment, for no 

 one would have much sympathy with :uch unbusiness- 

 like people. That the houses we buy from should give 

 us ample credit we would find but natural after all the 

 trouble we had been put to. I do not think that much 

 sympathy would be aroused in our breasts over their 

 protests, if we decided that they should have to pay us 

 for the "en vase" we remitted them for the despatch, 

 of the goods we had favoured them with buying, nor 

 do 1 think that any of us would even carry our al- 

 truism so far as to consent to return them the money 

 they had paid us for the "envase" in which our orders 

 arrived, and which we had been forced to remit be- 

 cause they themselves were incompetent to deliver the 

 -nods without our aid. 



A STATE PROGRAMME. 



How can we talk of "negotiating" the sale of our 

 products when we are so absolutely dependent <>"i our 

 clients even to the extent of the very "envase" with- 

 out which we cannot move them from off our door- 



In any case it is certainly undignified to uve to 

 confide the solving of our difficulties to strangers, even 

 if they are our best customers and stalwart supporters 

 of ours. 



The Government has made the experiment which 

 has served to demonstrate that if the State cannot 

 the problem of sacks, neither can private enterprise; 

 nor both combined . 



Next year we cannot depend on the same solution 

 being attempted : we must now 'look for a complet'ly 

 different combination, and there is no other but to 

 modify our customs, limit our demands for sacks, and 

 adopt bulk handling and the elevator. 



