Procedure for Dealing with Invalid Transfers of Property in Enemy Occupied Countries1
| Published date | 01 December 1944 |
| Author | George Weis |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1944.tb02608.x |
| Date | 01 December 1944 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
nature, operate under obligations, formal or informal, from which private under-
takings are free. The latter can choose the more remunerative husiness (thereby
being enabled
to
lower
its
price) add leave the rest; the public undertab
carmot do
so.
Unless, therefore, it has the whole field to itself it is liable
to operate under a disadvantage. The conclusion is,
I
suggest,
that monopoly,
within the area of operation, is necessary except where competition-othemise
quite salutary-would not lead to the disadvantages just described. This would
apply, for instance, to trading corporations, where there seems
to
be
no
need
for monopolistic rights.
In conclusion,
it
will not be out of place to refer briefly to a hybrid
of
the public corporation, the so-called “mixed undertaking.” This is in essence
a
conlpany in which public and private undertakings pool their interests and
share
in
the direction.
It
is not unknown
in
these islands-the Manchester Ship
Canal Company and the AngleIranian Oil Company ate examples-but its
greatest development has been in certain Western European countries, notably
Germany during the Weimar Republic. It deserves more attention than it has
received, for as
a
solution of the very refractory problem of combining private
and public interests in order to get a better and more uptodate organisation,
it
is
of considerable interest.
It
might be, for instance, the best solution, from
the point of view
of
efficiency, of the current and as yet unsolved problem of
rationalising electricity distribution
in
this country. Admittedly the present
organisation
of
this service is haphazard, and stands in the way of desirable
and attainable progress in various directions.
But
the municipalities
will
not
sell out to the companies
nor
the companies-if they can help it-to anybody
else. Why should they not join, over suitable regional areas, in combined
operations
through
ae creation of mixed undertakings in which each party
would hold
an
interept in
proportion
to its contribution? The financial con-
tribution raised by
the
municipalities from their electricity undertakings, which
are
considerable though now limited, would be safeguarded, and they would
have their voice, often a predominating voice,
in
the policies of the undertaking.
Mixed undertakiqgs, it has been argued, are a transitional
form
of institution
leading ultimately to the public concp. That may be
so;
and they may be none
the worse for that. But
in
any
case,
as
an
expedient for untying a particularly
tangled knot and replacing it by something better adapted to current social
needs, the idea seems to have considerable merit.
We are entering on an age
of
experiment in the field of public institutions
and public administration
:
indeed it has already, during the war, begun. Among
those
experiments the Public Corporation has already won a recognised place.
But there are aspects
of
it, related to organisation and practice, which are not yet
generally understood
or
sufficiently studied. It is still in the experimental stage.
But
I
think that it has come to
stay.
Procedure for Dealing
with
Invalid
Transfers of Property in Enemy
Occupied Countries’
By
GEORGE
WEIS
1
AM
not
in
a position to judge to what extent the life of Sir Winston
Churchill, father of the Duke
of
Marlborough and ancestor
of
Mr.
Winston
Churchill is generally
known.
~
But
I
was rather
~
thrilled the other day when
I
Paper read before
the
Czechoslovak
Economic Association (London), February,
1944.
1
42
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