!
i
227
has not yet received permission to deal with Messrs. Geo. Fraser
Son and Company, Limited, or Messrs. Geo. Richardson and Company,
Limited.
7.
Mr. Webb's application, as was that of Mr.
Backhouse, is made under section 6 of the Alien Enemies (Winding up) Ordinance, 1914, as amended by section 9 of the Alien Enemies (Winding up) Amendment Ordinance, 1914, and I am advised that it is very doubtful whether that section would enable me to restrain
the use of the marks in question by Mr. Webb or Mr. Backhouse.
The consent of the German firms to the use of their marks during
the war is not necessarily any evidence of the intervention assistance of those firms, as it might well be that they would
be glad that the marks should be kept alive on the market even
if they themselves were to receive no profit from the sales during
the war.
8.
or
It would appear therefore that fresh legisla-
-tion would be necessary to restrain the use of enemy marks in
any case where the enemy firm has given its consent to the user
of such marks. The general opinion of British merchants here seems
to be that a policy of refusing to allow the use of any marks
which were formerly used here by the German firms would not have any injurious effect on the Manchester and Bradford trade as a
whole, though it might, temporarily at least, injure particular middlemen, and possibly, to a less extent, individual manufactur-
- org.
On the other hand three considerations deter
me from recommending such a policy. One is whether it could be
justified in principle and whether it would not be an improper
interference with the private property and trade of enemy subjects
on land. The second point is whether the legislation might not
lend to itself to the imputation of being confiscatory. The third
point is that it is only in the Hongkong market that the use of
the