A great many loose expressions had been used, he declared, and there was a tendency to confuse a perfectly legitimately established business practice of remunerating an agent by commission and the very criminal practice of offering or attempting to bribe a Government servant.
In view of the fact that the large increase in Government business appeared to have attracted a corresponding proportion of people who lived by their wits, the Government had decided that the position of agents must be regularized, and the atmosphere of suspicion engendered by the action of unscrupulous persons ended.
Accordingly, Mr. Burgin declared, regulations were now being drafted making it an offence to obtain commissions by representing that influence could be brought to bear on any Government servant, while at the same time safeguarding the relations between a principal and his accredited agents.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.