§ SIR HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, if the attention of the Government has been directed to the suggestion made on Friday last by the late Prime Minister, the Earl of Rosebery, thatan Inquiry should be instituted, short, practical, and exhaustive, into the causes of the decline of British trade and the alarming increase of that of our foreign rivals, more particularly in the decline in the exports of British produce between 1872 and 1894 of £2 9s. 9d. per head of the population, and in the increase between 1883 and 1893 of 30 per cent. in the importation of German manufactured goods, and of £13,000,000 in the imports of foreign manufactured articles; and, if Her Majesty's Government will take steps in that direction, notwithstanding the industrial prosperity temporarily succeeding the recent years of acute depression?
§ MR. HERBERT LEWISMay I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that the annual average exports from Great Britain from 1885–89 were £226,000,000, whereas from 1890–91 they were £234,000,000; and, whether he is also aware that the average exports from Germany during the first period—
§ *MR. SPEAKEROrder, order! It is quite out of order for an hon. Member to read out a number of extracts from Blue-books and ask a Minister whether he is aware of the facts contained in them
§ SIR H. VINCENTThey are all wrong, Sir. [Laughter.]
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURYThe question of the amount of British as compared with foreign trade is being carefully watched by the Board Trade, who are engaged in collecting materials on the subject for publication. The colonial aspect of the question is being carefully examined into at the same time by the Colonial Office. Until we have the results of these investigations before us it would be premature to decide whether further inquiry is necessary or not.
§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether his attention has been called to a letter of Lord Rosebery's in this morning's papers, in which the writer says that his speech
was intended to arouse the attention of our commercial classes to the grave inroads which are being made on our commerce by Foreign Powers. What is really wanted is a small Commission of Inquiry.["Order, order!"] Well, it is Lord Rosebery's.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURYI should say that an inquiry could hardly be, in Lord Rosebery's words, at the same time short, practical, and exhaustive. If it were short it could hardly be exhaustive, and if exhaustive it could hardly be short. [Laughter.]