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The characteristics of millions of SMEs, the way they operate, the growing employment they sustain, their collective influence over the quality of tourism products and destinations, and how to influence their development is arguably the most important issue for European tourism as we approach the millennium. This paper is based on a three‐day conference, Agenda 2010, convened by the Wales Tourist Board (WTB) and held at Llandudno in May 1998 during the UK Presidency of the EU. The meeting, supported by DGXXIII and the Welsh Office, was designed to highlight the contribution of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to European tourism and make recommendations for facilitating and supporting their activities in the future. SMEs are defined by the EC as businesses employing less than 250 employees although the great majority in tourism employ less than 10. Most readers will know that DGXXIII has separate responsibilities within the EC for SMEs and for tourism.

This guide is compiled in order that banks may see the extent of the overall problem of fraud and money laundering in documentary credit transactions. It also contains advice on how banks and bankers may protect themselves and their staff from the consequences of fraudulent attacks against the system.

The long controversy that has waxed furiously around the implementation of the EEC Directives on the inspection of poultry meat and hygiene standards to be observed in poultry slaughterhouses, cutting‐up premises, &c, appears to be resolved at last. (The Prayer lodged against the Regulations when they were formally laid before Parliament just before the summer recess, which meant they would have to be debated when the House reassembled, could have resulted in some delay to the early operative dates, but little chance of the main proposals being changed.) The controversy began as soon as the EEC draft directive was published and has continued from the Directive of 1971 with 1975 amendments. There has been long and painstaking study of problems by the Ministry with all interested parties; enforcement was not the least of these. The expansion and growth of the poultry meat industry in the past decade has been tremendous and the constitution of what is virtually a new service, within the framework of general food inspection, was inevitable. None will question the need for efficient inspection or improved and higher standards of hygiene, but the extent of the

The Sanitary Committee of a certain County Council, strong with the strength of recent creation, have lately been animated by a desire to distinguish themselves in some way, and, proceeding along the lines of least resistance, they appear to have selected the Public Analyst as the most suitable object for attack. The charge against this unfortunate official was not that he is incompetent, or that he had been in any way negligent of his duties as prescribed by Act of Parliament, but simply and solely that he has the temerity to reside in London, which city is distant by a certain number of miles from the much favoured district controlled by the County Council aforesaid. The committee were favoured in their deliberations by the assistance of no less an authority than the “Principal” of a local “Technical School”;—and who could be more capable than he to express an opinion upon so simple a matter? This eminent exponent of scientific truths, after due and proper consideration, is reported to have delivered himself of the opinion that “scientifically it would be desirable that the analyst should reside in the district, as the delay occasioned by the sending of samples of water to London is liable to produce a misleading effect upon an analysis.” Apparently appalled by the contemplation of such possibilities, and strengthened by another expression of opinion to the effect that there were as “good men” in the district as in London, the committee resolved to recommend the County Council to determine the existing arrangement with the Public Analyst, and to appoint a “local analyst for all purposes.” Thus, the only objection which could be urged to the employment of a Public Analyst resident in London was the ridiculous one that the composition of a sample of water was likely to seriously alter during the period of its transit to London, and this contention becomes still more absurd when it is remembered that the examination of water samples is no part of the official duty of a Public Analyst. The employment of local scientific talent may be very proper when the object to be attained is simply the more or less imperfect instruction of the rising generation in the rudiments of what passes in this country for “technical education”; but the work of the Public Analyst is serious and responsible, and cannot be lightly undertaken by every person who may be acquainted with some of the uses of a test‐tube. The worthy members of this committee may find to their cost, as other committees have found before them, that persons possessing the requisite knowledge and experience are not necessarily indigenous to their district. Supposing that the County Council adopts the recommendation, the aspirations of the committee may even then be strangled in their infancy, as the Local Government Board will want to know all about the matter, and the committee will have to give serious and valid reasons in support of their case.

It has been found that lactase (a ferment which aids the digestion of milk sugar) is present in the pancreatic juice of puppies, though not in that of the adult animal, but would appear in the latter under the stimulous of a milk diet.

IN the comparatively small world of librarianship it is an undeniable distinction to be invited to contribute to the proceedings of this school in this particular way, and I assure you I am very sensible of the honour accorded to me. Realising that I have now reached the stage when I must be regarded as having arrived at the beginnings of old fogeyism at least, I am quite frankly going to claim one of the recognised privileges of advancing years by indulging in some reminiscencing. For full forty years now I have been actively interested in the affairs of librarianship, so it is my purpose to use this opportunity for paying some tribute to the two Associations with which I have been connected all the time, for the many valued friendships made, as well as for the encouragement and inspiration it has been my good fortune to receive.

THESE notes are written at a critical time even in the history of this war, and at a time when the Government has resolved to mobilize the whole resources of the nation in order to save it. We have yet to discover how this may affect libraries, but there is no doubt that when the first preoccupation with the movements of the antagonists has come into some sort of perspective the book will play a quite definite part in the days of all. At present we all go on with our normal tasks as best we may, not being rattled when news is not uniformly good, or is even bad, and always in the faith that the free minds of free men, for which our work has always stood, will in the end survive in a free world.

From a recently published letter addressed to a well‐known firm of whisky manufacturers by Mr. JOHN LETHIBY, Assistant Secretary to the Local Government Board, it is plain that the Board decline to entertain the suggestion that the Government should take steps to compel manufacturers of whisky to apply correct descriptions to their products. The adoption of this attitude by the Board might have been anticipated, but the grounds upon which the Board appear to have taken it up are not in reality such as will afford an adequate defence of their position, as the negative evidence given before the Select Committee on Food Products Adulteration and yielded by the reports of Public Analysts is beside the mark. The introduction of a governmental control of the nature suggested is not only undesirable but impracticable. It is undesirable because such a control must be compulsory and is bound to be unfair. It would be relegated to a Government Department, and of necessity, therefore, in the result it would be in the hands of an individual—the head of the Department—and subject entirely to the ideas and the unavoidable prejudices of one person. It is impracticable because no Government or Government Department could afford to take up a position involving the recommendation of particular products and the condemnation of others. No Government could take upon itself the onus of deciding questions of quality as distinguished from questions merely involving nature and substance. A system of control, in order to be effective and valuable alike to the public and the honest manufacturer, must be voluntary in its nature in so far as the manufacturer is concerned, and must be carried out by an independent and authoritative body entirely free from governmental trammels, and possessing full liberty to give or withhold its approbation or guarantee.