Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Gorffennaf 1922.
I must say I am rather surprised at this idea of what constitutes business put forward by the Parliamentary Secretary. This Subsection amounts to this, that if a manufacturer, that is the joint electricity authority, finds out he has made a mistake, or that the price of coal has gone up, or that the engineers are not so efficient as he thought, and thereby makes a loss of revenue during the year, the manufacturer having made, possibly by his own fault, a loss on the transaction, is then to go to the wholesale agents who have dealt with him and say, "I have made a loss on the manufacture of electricity this year. You people must provide the loss which I have made, but I will allow you the liberty of apportioning out amongst yourselves what proportion of the loss you will bear each one." That is the most extraordinary piece of business I have ever come across in my life. You have all these authorities, the undertaker and the joint electricity authority—the joint authority which is going to sell to the undertaker, and the undertaker who is going to sell to the retailer—but if the manufacturer, as this Section of the Clause suggests, through his own loss or through some unavoidable circumstances makes a loss on his manufacture, then the burden is to be borne by the wholesale merchant, who is to have this magnificent privilege, and we are informed by the hon. Gentleman, of consulting with other wholesale merchants who also purchase from that particular manufacturer, and dividing up among themselves the loss the manufacturer has made. It seems to me it is one of the most extraordinary ideas possible to think that the business of this country, or of any other country, is conducted on such lines. This Subsection of this Clause seems to me to be the microcosm of the whole Bill.