§ MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Copyright Bill has actually passed the Congress of the United States, and whether it contains the provision that American copyright shall only be granted to books deposited before publication with the Librarian of Congress, printed from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made there from, and that, during the existence of such copyright, the importation of any such book or edition thereof not made from type set within the limits of the United States is prohibited; and, in such case, bearing in mind the renewed declaration of the Prime Minister on 4th March 437 on the Associated Chambers of Commerce that English remonstrance on foreign commercial policy pre- Judicial to British trade at home and abroad is wholly futile under the present fiscal system, as we have no means of supporting the remonstrance, for giving any advantage in return for favourable concessions—what definite domestic action, as distinguished from remonstrance with a foreign Power Her Majesty's Government proposes to take to prevent injury being done to industry and labour in the United Kingdom, and the probable disemployment of many workpeople concerned in the book trade, to restrain the transfer to America of the productions of the works of British authors desirous of securing American copyright by the use in the United States of American type or plates, and simultaneously enjoying copyright in Great Britain and Ireland?
§ *THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. W. H. SMITH,) Strand, WestminsterWe have no official knowledge of the measure, and only know from the newspapers that it has been passed. It is quite impossible for me to express any opinion respecting its provisions until we see them. I do not know what changes may have been made in the Bill during its passage through Congress, and I am, therefore, quite unable to indicate what would be the policy or action of the Government with respect to it.