MR. FIELDI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether it is a fact that the Dunlop Cycle Company, with a share capital of £5,000,000, is now reduced in value to £3,000,000; whether it is a fact that the Simpson Lever Chain Company, which was floated with a capital of £1,000,000, of which £900,000 was subscribed, is now valued, according to Stock Exchange quotations, at a figure under £6,000; whether his attention has been directed to the revelations in the recent Grappler Company case; and whether, under these circumstances, the Government will grant a Board of Trade inquiry respecting the promotion and management of cycle companies?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. C. T. RITCHIE,) CroydonI have no means of forming an estimate of the value placed by the Stock Exchange upon the shares of joint stock companies. I have seen in the newspapers an account of the proceedings in the law courts referred to, but I do not find anything in them that would warrant a departmental inquiry.