§ MR. LAWSON (St. Pancras, W.)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whether his attention has been called to a letter to The Times newspaper of the 25th on the inadequacy of commercial training in this Country; and, whether, considering the stress laid upon it in the various communications addressed to the Foreign Office respecting diplomatic and consular assistance to trade, he will inquire, in conjunction with the heads of other departments, into the possibility of establishing some recognised centre of commercial education with proper tests of efficiency?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir HENRY HOLLAND) (Hampstead)(who replied) said: I understand the Question of the hon. Member to point to the expediency of creating one or more purely commercial schools in which special commercial training is to be given. The hon. Member is well aware that in the existing schools many subjects are taught which will be of service in commercial life; and I may add that the Charity Commissioners have, in some schemes under the Endowed Schools Act, made special provisions for the teaching of such subjects, as in the Realschulen in Germany. No question of having purely commercial schools has yet been raised before the Education Department, and I should hesitate to offer any opinion upon the matter until some well-defined scheme is submitted. The hon. Member will doubtless consider whether the question could be usefully brought under the consideration of the Royal Commission now sitting on education.