LIPTON'S.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15014, 8 July 1914, Page 9

LIPTON'S.

SEQUEL TO CANTEEN CASES. (By Cable.—Piesa Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, Jnly 6. Sir Thomas Lipton's firm ban been removed from tbo list of Army contractors. : For months past the- Army canteens scandal has attracted iuu>h atteuti:n (writes tho London correspo&dont jF ibo "Argus"), partly on account of the public importances of the matter and partly owfng lo tho fame of Sir Thomas Lipton (against whom, personalty, as tlio Attorney-General eaid, there was no suggestion) and the position of Lipton, Ltd., in the commercial world. I need only recall to you a« an outline of tbo caso that servants of Lipton's had bribed army quartermasters to secure for tbo firm, as against rival contractors, tho lucrative privilege of catering for"their regimonte. There were seventeen defendants altogether at tho Old Bailey, and tho hearing engaged Mr Justice Darling ami a jury for nino days. First. Archibald Minto, who has been head of Lipton's military department, John Canafield, a director and general manager, and five other Liptou men were charged, under common law and tho Prevention of Corruption Act. 1906, with conspiring to give corrupt inducements to soldiers. The principal witness was Mr Sawyer, who, having been largely concerned in this business when in Lipton's service, afterwards entered tho employment of the Canteen and Mess Co-operative Society and gave the secret away. After the evidence had been heard, two leeral point* taken by counsel for tho defence wore overruled by the judge, and the civilian defendants and tho quartermasters then pleaded guilty. Colonel C. H. T. Whitaker was then charged along with Mr Minto, and a third peft>on, .Ness, who was* not forthcoming. . Colonel Whitaker was sentenced to six months in tho second division. Minto and Cansfield wore fined £500 each, one civilian £100; the rest £50 each; and tho were bound over to como up for judgment it' called upon. Commentators on the case urge that quartermasters aro dangerously underpaid, beginning at only fts a day; and that canteens should be run, not by contractors, but co-opera-tively by tho regiment, ac in the Navy. The judge said he was satisfied that tho directorate of Lipton's knew of, encouraged, and persisted in the system of corruption.