35 



Therefore Bird Protectors say : 



" Close the great free market of London, and the Bird Protec- 

 tion laws of America and of every other country will be 

 strengthened." 



A Foreign Trade. 



If the birds of the British Empire, and the birds that would 

 otherwise be killed to supply the English shops, are saved, the 

 trade, say its members, will flourish all the same on the Continent, 

 but England will lose her share in the profits on it. 



To this the answer might be given that England would be well 

 rid of her profits in such a business, and that when a trade is 

 shown to have evil consequences and to be against the interests 

 of the world at large, it is not the character of English people 

 to pause to consider that if England washed her hands there are 

 other people who will be not so particular. There is, however, 

 no necessity to appeal to this sentiment. 



The trade at present is not an English one. It is essentially 

 a foreign trade. The feathers are brought into London, but it 

 has been shown that 80 per cent, of them leave the country as 

 they came. There is no import duty, and on that proportion 

 no industrial workers have been employed. The buyer and the 

 seller in Mincing Lane are the only persons concerned with it. 

 The firms of feather-merchants who are so anxious about the 

 British interests are Messrs. Sciama & Co., Eugene Hanneguy, 

 S. H. Weiler, G. K. Dunstall and Emil Mosbacher. The com- 

 mittee of the Eastern Millinery Association which fought the New 

 York Bird Protection Bill were Messrs. Zucker, Herman, Goldzier, 

 Sommerich, Blumenthal and Judkins ; and the officers of the 

 New York Feather Importers' Association at that time (1909) 

 were Messrs Ph. Adelson, M. Lehman, G. Silva (of Sciama & Co.) 

 and Lucian Selz. Great Britain and the United States owe 

 much to the numerous foreign merchants doing business of many 

 kinds within their cities ; but when these gentlemen betray 

 great anxiety as to the result to England if their trade departs 

 from this country, it is not unreasonable to suspect that the 

 anxiety is more concerned with the trade than with the country. 



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