BOGUS HALL MARKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22968, 21 February 1938, Page 4

BOGUS HALL MARKS

£30,000,000 TRADE LOSS BRITAIN IN THE ARGENTINE [l-'JtOM A SI'KCIAI. C'OIIItKSI'ONDKNT] LONDON, Jan. -JO Silver goods stamped with Birmingliani hall marks, hut actually made m Germany, are being sold extensively in the Argentine, it is alleged. It was revealed this week that a sum estimated at £:«),000,000 is lost every year hy British firms owing to the counterfeiting of trade marks. The Government is planning stern measures to prevent this loss. German and Japanese traders are the principal culprits, and they operate in spite of the efforts of their respective Governments to put an end to their counterfeit business. "We aro dealing with the Argentine business." a Board of Trade official Raid this week. "There lmvo been many complaints of tho faking of the Birmingham hall mark on silver, and the stamp—it is Gorman —so closely resembles the legitimate English mark that even exBnrts have taken the silver to he ritish. "Japan is a great offender. This practice of selling inferior goods as British, and of well-known muka, » difficult to stamp out."