Orders of the Day — Clause 1. — (Certain bidding agreements to be illegal.)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 24 June 1927.

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Photo of Sir Alan McLean Sir Alan McLean , Norfolk South Western

This Amendment was raised on the Second Reading of the Bill, when there appeared to be a general agreement in the House that the questions we are dealing with here were divided into two groups. First of all, there was the group in which we have professional dealers conducting knockouts; and, in the second place, you have private arrangements between people who go casually to auctions and enter into an agreement such as has been cited. That case was an instance where two landowners wanted to acquire a neighbouring estate, or some portion of it, and they agreed not to bid against each other. They also agreed that, if one of them made the purchase and desired to sell it again, he would give the other first offer. There is nothing really immoral or illegal in doing that, but it is quite a different matter when you come to the knock-out. Consequently, in Committee, Clause 1 was considerably amended to confine the Bill to instances in which one of the parties was actually a professional dealer. For these reasons, I oppose this Amendment.