-2- in the two months which have elapsed since undertakings have known of this latest addition to their costs the applications received have been in respect of 15 per cent of the sales for the whole of the country, as compared with the 11 per cent covered by the applications for the preceding seven months (January-July). Furthermore, it has been necessary in the case of six undertakings, representing 5 per cent of the total sales of gas and including two of the big London Companies (Wandsworth and South Metropolitan) either to sanction exceptional increases raising the price to more than 50 per cent over the pre-war price, or (in two cases) to increase still further a price already above the normal 50 per cent ceiling.