§ 17. Mr. Quintin Hoggasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to the practice of laundries in limiting the compensation payable in the event of loss to 20 times the washing value of the article; and whether he will prohibit such a term applying in any case to which a zoning scheme applies.
§ Captain WaterhouseI am advised that I have no power at present to prohibit the limitation referred to; and to introduce 1267 special legislation on such a matter would, as I am sure my hon. Friend would agree, be quite out of the question this Session.
§ Mr. HoggDoes not my right hon. and gallant Friend realise that the whole justification for this condition, if any, rests on freedom of contract; and, when he compels a subject to contract with a particular laundry, has he not a right to protect that subject against the person with whom the subject is compelled to contract?
§ Captain WaterhouseI realise that there are difficulties in this matter when the Government interferes, as we have to do. On the other hand, so far as I know, I have no powers to do what my hon. Friend asks, and he will know, as well as I do, that legislation this Session would not be possible.
§ Mr. Moelwyn HughesIs it not possible to achieve that purpose—of the continuance of the restrictions imposed—by way of regulation?
§ Captain WaterhouseNo, Sir; I am advised not. I would remind the House that this regulation, although it generally appears in all the agreements of the laundries, is not, by any means, universally in force. Many laundries—most laundries, I think I am right in saying—waive it in practice.