92 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
Younger &amp; Bond, of London; the Compagnie des Minerais, of Liege
(he might have mentioned other companies in every part of the globe,
banks and financial associations), were bound together in a very
intimate and complicated interrelationship to the point “that the
hand of the Metall Gesellschaft was to be seen and its powerful influence
 exhibited at all times and places.” The whole center of
activity and operations of this business was at Frankfurt, at the
offices of the Metall Gesellschaft. He felt no doubt in deciding that
this business had its house -of trade in Frankfurt.
It is interesting to note, in connection with international trusts,
that Parliament 1s at this moment considering how far and in what
manner a British corporation, wholly or partly under foreign control,
 is entitled to trade as a British enterprise, and the disposition
is, without any doubt, to go behind the corporate form and seek the
nationality of the stock ownership or control as fixing the true
nationality of the enterprise itself.
Conditions following the war—Under existing circumstances
American houses, as everybody knows, are doing an enormous business
 in the United Kingdom. Much of this business naturally will
revert to British houses on the reestablishment of peace, when manufacturers
 now making munitions and military supplies can turn
once again to their usual lines of production; but whether, when that
time comes, competitive conditions in this country will be what they
are to-day, belongs to the domain of speculation. Many observers
and writers are already urging the desirability of adopting a complicated
 set of tariffs which, first of all, will tend to assist the sale of
products of various parts of the British Empire, and of the present
allies of Great Britain. The development and practical application
of ideas along the above lines is a matter to be watched with keener
and keener interest as the war draws to a close.

NOTES FROM COMMERCIAL ATTACHE A. H. BALDWIN.

Commercial Attaché A. H. Baldwin has kindly supplied the consulate
 general with the following further notes on the subject of combinations
 in the British possessions:
Informal combination in South American meat trade.—There exists
 in the United Kingdom a recognized combination or system of
agreement with respect to imports among those several companies
which are engaged in selling South American chilled meat (beef) in
the markets of Great Britain. While no written agreement between
these companies is established, it is known that at intervals representatives
 of each company importing meat from the Argentine
sit in conference and decide upon the percentage of shipments that
shall be made by each party to the agreement. This action is evidently
 not regarded by the British Government as contrary to the
on interest; in fact, since the beginning of the war, when the
ritish authorities commandeered much of the shipping engaged in
the meat trade with South America (and even took over one of the
refrigerating plants on the La Plata River), the suggestion has been
made by the Hones that it should itself become a party to this
understanding between the meat companies operating in this trade
in these islands (a plan not carried out).