RESTRAINT OF TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18380, 21 April 1923, Page 9

RESTRAINT OF TRADE.

AMERICAN ALLEGATIONS.

CONTROL OF SUGAR PRICES.

STATE SEEKS INJUNCTION.

By Telegraph—Press Association Copyright.

(Received 6 p.m.)

A. and N.Z.

WASHINGTON, April 13.

The Department of Justice, which conducted an investigation into the sugar situation, has filed in the Federal Court of New York a petition in equity against the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange and the New York Coffee and Sugar Clearing Association, asking the Court to enjoin the defendants from further engaging in a combination and conspiracy in restraint of trade in raw and refined sugar. The petition charges that as a result of fictitious transactions in raw and refined sugar' the price to the consumer has been increased by over two dollars per hundred pounds since February 7, and that speculative operations are being carried on for the sole purpose of unduly enhancing prices. The petition asks for perpetual enjoinment on the defendants from conducting any transaction involving the purchase, or sale, or delivery of sugar unless the person purporting to make the sale actually possesses a supply of sugar. The petition recites figures of the production of sugar during the past year. It summarises the actual sugar trade conditions for February to date, stating that there existed during this period no economic justification for the sudden or appreciable increase in the price or for any increase, but the orgy of speculation in raw sugar indulged in through the instrumentality of the exchange, and clearing associations. The.petition which was drafted by the Attorney-General, was filed after the entire matter had been considered by the Cabinet.

EFFECT UPON THE MARKET. FUTURE QUOTATIONS FALL. Australian and N.Z. Cable Asociation. (Reed. 10.15 p.m.) NEW YORK. April 19. Following the announcement of the i Government's suit against the Sugar Exchange and Clearing Association, future sugar quotations fell precipitately. _ Spot, however, jumped, Cuban raws selling at 6$ cents. ■ ____.