HC Deb 14 September 1914 vol 66 cc816-9

(1) Any person who during the present War trades or has, since the fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and fourteen, traded with the enemy within the meaning of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall—

  1. (a) on conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding twelve months, or to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds, or to both such imprisonment and fine; or
    2. 817
  2. (b) on conviction on indictment, be liable to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven or less than three years, or to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both such penal servitude or imprisonment and fine;
and the Court may in any case order that any goods or money, in respect of which the offence has been committed, be forfeited.

(2) For the purposes of this Act a person shall be deemed to have traded with the enemy if he has entered into any transaction or done any act which was at the time of such transaction or act prohibited by or under any Proclamation issued by His Majesty dealing with trading with the enemy for the time being in force, or which at common law or by Statute constitutes an offence of trading with the enemy:

Provided that any transaction or act permitted by or under any such Proclamation shall not be deemed to be trading with the enemy.

(3) Where a company has entered into a transaction or has done any act which is an offence under this Section, every director, manager, secretary, or other officer of the company who is knowingly a party to the transaction or act shall also be deemed guilty of the offence.

(4) A prosecution for an offence under this Section shall not be instituted except by or with the consent of the Attorney-General:

Provided that the person charged with such an offence may be arrested and a warrant for his arrest may be issued and executed, and such person may be remanded in custody or on bail notwithstanding that the consent of the Attorney-General to the institution of the prosecution for the offence has not been obtained, but no further or other proceedings shall be taken until that consent has been obtained.

(5) Where an act constitutes an offence both under this Act and under any other Act, or both under this Act and at common law, the offender shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished under either this Act or such other Act, or under this Act or at common law, but shall not be liable to be punished twice for the same offence.

Mr. SAMUEL ROBERTS

I beg to move that the Clause be omitted.

This Bill applies to enemies who are persons trading in Germany, but it does not go to the bottom of the evil of Germans trading in this country. The Proclamation which this Bill is meant to enforce is under paragraph (3). The expression "enemy" in the Proclamation means a person or body of persons, of whatever nationality, resident or carrying on business in the enemy country. That does not include persons of the enemy nationality who are neither resident in, nor carrying on business in the enemy country. There are a great many cases—I have got one specially before me—of companies which are essentially enemy companies, carrying on in this country, whose boards are entirely composed of Germans, and which have been established in this country for the express purpose of undermining British trade. My contention is that companies in that position are exactly in the same position as those which are carrying on business in the enemy country. Why should not this Proclamation be put into operation against the evils of such companies? I have got here the names of all the directors and shareholders of the company which I have in mind. I shall not mention the company at present, but I shall be glad to show this list to the right, hon. Gentleman. The letter which I have got accompanying it, says:— The works of this company were established with the sole object of undermining British trade in this particular manufacture. It has been the practice for this company to endeavour to find out the prices quoted to their British customers by British manufacturers, and then for this company to quote a lower price, and even to continue quoting lower and lower until under cost price was reached. Many British consumers fell into the trap, but others fortunately were wiser. The evident object of this company was to destroy British manufacture, and these manufacturers once destroyed, the trade would have gone over to the German concerns, the immediate effect being that there would have been a general rise of prices in Germany, as against this country, and British consumers would have had to pay abnormally high prices to the German manufacturers. I would like to have an answer to the question, how it is that the Proclamation could not be made to apply to cases of this description? It does not appear from the wording of the Proclamation that they are included. I cannot imagine why any Regulation applying to a company in the enemy country should not apply to a company of this sort. I have no objection to this Bill, and I do not want to move the omission of this Clause, except to get an answer to my question.

Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER

If the hon. Member's objection is to the Proclamation, perhaps he will find another opportunity to put the questions which he desires to have answered.

Mr. ROBERTS

I should be very much obliged to the right hon. Gentleman if I could have this question answered. To put myself in order, I object to this Clause so long as my point is not included.

Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER

The hon. Member could put that point on the Third Reading of the Bill.

Mr. ROBERTS

I think that I am entitled to ask why the Bill does not go further, but I quite agree.

Question, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill," put, and agreed to.