A very correct decision has been taken by the British Government not to Ax a minimum standard of quality for tew Import as is men tioned in the telegrams tosay. The ronyon given ix that it would pro: ably lead to sound but cheap teas being taken off the market, but in addition to this there is the experi ence of what has happened in the United States to deter the enaetment of any: such measure, Tea en tering the States must pass a c tain standard test, and when it comes to the cheapest varieties the exporter in. Shanghi or anywhere else finds himself on he horns a very acute dilemma, He is, for example, asked by his client in Ameria to ship the cheapest quality which will pass the official examin-ex, and he has either to take} a chance on his idea of the cheapest possible, or play for safety by sending a rather dearer consignment which he knows will meet all the examiner's requirements. In the first instance where he chances it, he may find hi tea rejected, while im the second case he may experi-fence a nasty jar in learning that a competitor has been able. to get through a quantity of tea of a very much lower quality. than In his. other words he has missel the market for his really cheap tea, and has got rid of some of his moderate quality which his client at the other end did not really want.
is, nf course; impossible to linrinate the human element from the judgment of a number of different examiners, and although very little China tea haz in- the past year or two been rejected as being below standard, there is always the chance that a' period might occur when rejections would be numerous. If such can happen in the case of America, it is just as likely to occur in Great Britain, and might easily result in very' cheap but nevertheless good tea being prohibited to the people. A further note may be made here. American experts say that the people of the United States are not educated in regard to tea, being largely coffee drinkers, but this is not so in Great where really bad tea will consumers, and so the posi tion is safeguarded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.