§ MR. JESSE COLLINGS (Birmingham Bordesley)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, if the American Tariff Bill now before Congress is passed into law, the Government intend to take any steps to encourage British manufacturers to exhibit at the "World's Fair" in Chicago, seeing that the Bill in question is prohibitive as regards many classes of British manufactures?
*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir J. FERCUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.The question of any official participation by Her Majesty's Government in an International Exhibition can only be determined upon a review of the advantages to British interests when an invitation is received from the Government promoting it. But it is only probable that manufacturers in this country would be to a great extent deterred from sending specimens of their goods for exhibition if the Customs Duties imposed in the country of the Exhibition were such as to preclude their profitable sale there.