When this difficulty was surmounted there remained the question of really getting into the show at all, despite the very high charges for admission, and next there was the impossibility of being able to secure a car for use next year. Not unnaturally the prices of all these vehicles are siuiply bounding up. The Ford, which sells in America for £100, sells here for £250, and the duty of 33} per cent. plus insurance and freight does not explain the difference. Even as the show opened some of the big cars added £150 to £200 on to their selling price. The cost of the most expensive was already so high that a few hundreds more or less made no difference.
Under these circumstances it is not unnatural that there is a strong movement in favour of the abolrtion of import duty of 33} per cent. against foreign cars, at any rate, for six months. The French are able to import ears with ease irrespective of the duty, since this is exactly balanced by their bad exchange, and it would pay anyone to send cars into this country from abroad on a wholesale scale. It also pays anyone to sell an option on a car, or what is known as "a place on the waiting list." If this is a list for a good car it is worth at least £200.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.