THE PEPPER CRISIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 68, 16 February 1935, Page 7

THE PEPPER CRISIS.

MYSTERIOUS BACKGROUND. LONDON, Feb. 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 lias 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 Janies and Shakespeare were eventually associated. The Economist, commenting on the relationships, says: “If 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.”