MAJOR JONESI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he will give instructions to the Bureau of Statistics to add to the yearly Returns of Minerals given in the Blue Book, under separate hearings, the bunker coals shipped "coastwise" and "oversea"?
§ * MR. BRYCEI do not know whether my hon. Friend by his expression "the yearly Return of Minerals" refers to the Mineral Statistics issued by the Home Office, or to the Annual Statement of Trade and Navigation issued by the Board of Trade. The amount of bunker coal shipped for the use of steamers engaged in the foreign trade has not been included in that Statement, because those shipments are not export in the ordinary sense of the term, but are like other ships' stores. Such shipments for use in the coasting trade would be still less of the nature of exports; but the hon. Member's suggestion will be referred to the Revising Committee, which meets in the autumn, to see if the present record in the Monthly Accounts of Trade of the quantity of coal shipped for the use of steamers in the foreign trade can properly be extended to coasting steamer coal.