Principles of western civilisation

APPENDIX 509

when entering into engagements with servants and agents, would call attention to the subject, and make the refusal of all bribes an express, instead of an implied term of the contract of service or agency. Such an explicit stipulation would probably give moral as well as legal support to servants and agents in resisting the temptation when offered under the pretence of a thing which is always done.

21. Your Committee are of opinion that much good in many cases may be done by circulars or notices warning against the payment or receipt of bribes. In one case a nurseryman is in the habit of issuing a notice to all gardeners of his refusal to pay commissions on orders; in another case another of your Committee, having discovered the misdeeds of one of his buyers, addressed a circular on the subject to all the firms from which he was in the habit of buying. In some cases notices have, your Committee believe, been circulated by householders amongst the shops serving them warning them against the payment of commissions to the servants employed, and corresponding notices by the tradesmen to the servants of the houses which they supply would be useful.

22. Something may be done to check commissions by the exercise of increased vigilance on the actions and proceedings of the servants and agents employed, especially of buyers and salesmen, and of persons employed to inspect and pass goods. If principals would always inquire for themselves why goods were refused, or why advice is given hostile to the particular manufacturers or tradesmen, they would sometimes find that the defect was not in the goods, but in the bribe. This necessity for vigilance applies with special force to the case of large institutions, such as workhouses, hospitals, asylums, and to large commercial jointstock concerns, such as railways and to co-operative stores.

23. In many cases buyers and others who are employed in very responsible positions, and have very important duties to perform, are paid inadequate salaries, and are thus rendered especially liable to the temptation of accepting bribes. This, in our opinion, demands the careful consideration of the heads of firms.

24. The existence of a great system of technical education throughout the country should be utilised as a means of disseminating clearer views than often exist of the immorality of the giving and receiving of bribes. The managers of these institutions would no doubt give the necessary permission, and allow influence in the right direction to be brought home to the young people in their schools, whether by means of written papers, or of oral addresses.