§ 92. Mr. THOMASasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that the Midland Railway Company, the Great Northern Railway Company, and the Great Central Railway Company are subjecting certain traders to undue pressure in connection with small disputed pre-war items of account, notwithstanding that it is within the knowledge 891 of the companies that the traders are unable to prepare their defence to such claims by reason of depletion of staff by enlistment for military service; whether he is aware that in an application for an appointment of an arbitrator to determine certain differences that had arisen under the provisions of Section 5 of the respective Companies' Rates and Charges Order Confirmation Acts, 1891-2, the said companies' solicitors themselves suggested the arbitrators who they preferred should be appointed, notwithstanding that this function is by the Section itself vested in the Board of Trade; and whether he will arrange for the postponement of actions of the kind mentioned until after the War?
§ Mr. PRETYMANThe Board of Trade, from time to time, receive applications from railway companies to appoint arbitrators in order to enable the companies to recover demurrage charges from traders who have declined to pay the amounts claimed and dispute the reasonableness of the charges. A number of such applications from the railway companies named and from other companies are now pending, and the Board are, in accordance with the usual practice, about to appoint the Railway and Canal Commission to act. It is important in present circumstances that wagons should be cleared with as little delay as possible, and there would seem to be no sufficient reason to postpone the settlement of claims for demurrage charges.