HC Deb 15 December 1926 vol 200 cc2965-6

Lords Amendment:

In page 1, line 7, leave out "distribute by way of advertisement," and insert, "by way of advertising goods of some other kind distribute."

The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of TRADE (Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister)

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

The object of this Amendment is to make sure that samples of goods which it is proposed to sell later are not included.

Mr. BASIL PETO

I would like the President of the Board of Trade to elaborate what he has said. It certainly seems to me that these are very limiting words. We ought not to agree to this Lords Amendment, because to leave out the words "distribute by way of advertisement" in order to insert "by way of advertising goods of some other kind" would seem to leave out what it was part of the purpose of the Bill to prohibit.

Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER

I can assure my hon. Friend that the words as printed in another place exactly express what was the intention of this House. There are cases where a firm of distillers, say, may send out matchboxes and so forth, and if the words had stood as they were when the Bill left this House, it might possibly be contended in a Court of law that this Clause also applied to an ordinary trader sending out samples of his own goods. The words put in in another place make it quite clear what was intended.

Captain WEDGWOOD BENN

A printer sending out advertisements of his publications could send out foreign printed matter to advertise his own goods, or a man making an article might take a similar article of foreign manufacture and use it as an advertisement. I am glad to sec that the Lords have made a considerable widening in the much too restricted terms of the Clause.

Question put, and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments down to page 7, line 26, agreed to.