In_ view of the interest aroused locally a few weeks ago by an article on cultured pearls, it is worth noting that Hatton Garden is in the throes not only of a controversy but also of something like a panic over them. These pearls never leave the East as anything but cultured pearls, but it seems that in the process of their passage through the hands of the dealers they succeeded in masquerading as the genuine article. Then the trouble arose. Owners of pearls! pagicked lest the cultured variety wad amongst their collection; pawnbrokers had the wind up Jest they had advanced money upon them; and dealers and jewellers, were in an equal star" of apprehension. Then somebody said that the cultured pearl could always be distinguished from the genuine one by its colour. Immediately an expert who was called in to decide a case found himself hopelessly at fault. Subsequently a committee of the Londom Chamber of Commerce held that as they were of the same nature as electroplate it would be a false representation to sell them as pearls. Against this, protest twas ab once forthcoming, both on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.