PEPPER MARKET CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 122, 16 February 1935, Page 7

PEPPER MARKET CRISIS

“Background of Mystery” PAPERS’ OBSERVATIONS London, February 14. Declaring that the pepper crisis was the result of a scandalous gamble, the ramifications of which demanded a searching inquiry in the interests of both the public weal and the City’s good name, the “News-Chronicle” states that behind the facts that have so far " emerged lies a background of mystery. Rumour has begun to involve not only leading figures in finance and industry, but others whose responsibilities to.the public are still greater. The "Economist,” tracing the history of attempts'to corner pepper and shellac, points out that Mr. Reginald McKenna and Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen are shareholders in the firm of James and Shakespeare and also members of the boards of other companies with which James and Shakespeare were eventually associated. The "Economist,” commenting on the relationships, says: “It may be possible for Mr. McKenna and Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen to dissociate their personal interests as investors from their public responsibilities, but it is regrettable that men in such a position of trusteeship placed themselves in a position in which the market might infer that they had some responsibility for events.”