MR. MAC IVERasked the President of the Board of Trade, If his attention has been called to a letter from Sir Louis Mallet to Mr. T. B. Potter, of which the Cobden Club circulated 41,000 copies, and in which the value of our untaxed imports of "Manufactured and Half-Manufactured articles "(taken from the Statistical Abstract) was stated to be about £49,000,000; whether he is aware that the accuracy of those figures has been questioned, and that it is alleged they should have been about £65,000,000; if the discrepancy is accounted for by the circumstance that oil-seed cake refined, and candied sugar, and several other manufactures, were omitted; and, if so, whether there is any sufficient reason for the official statistics continuing to be 1103 issued in a form which, by the adoption of a misleading classification, practically understates the general total of our imported manufactures by something like £16,000,000 annually; and, if, in the Return which it is proposed to issue as regards our trade with France, he can see his way to include, under one heading, all those articles which are in reality manufactures, and in such manner that the total value of these importations may be readily ascertained?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINSir, my attention has been called by the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Mac Iver) to a letter from Sir Louis Mallet to the hon. Member for Rochdale (Mr. Potter), which has been published by the Cobden Club; but I have not yet had time to read it. I am aware from the statement of the hon. Member for Birkenhead that he challenges the accuracy of some of the figures in that pamphlet. But I am not responsible for any statements which may have been made by Sir Louis Mallet, and I cannot undertake to explain the discrepancy between Sir Louis Mallet and the hon. Member, or to pronounce any opinion on the controversy which has arisen. I do not think that the official statistics published by us adopt a misleading classification; on the contrary, I think them perfectly intelligible. I have to add, in reply to the last Question, in respect to the Return which I promised to lay upon the Table, that I will endeavour to distinguish, as far as possible, between manufactured articles and articles not manufactured.