HC Deb 07 June 1901 vol 94 c1327
MR. LABOUCHERE

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has observed in the reports of our consular agents abroad frequent mention of the impediment to our commerce abroad that our existing system of weights and measures is found to be; and whether he contemplates legislation to replace it by a metric system.

MR. GERALD BALFOUR

Reports from His Majesty's representatives abroad frequently allude to the impediment caused to British trade by the adherence of many of our traders to the usual British system of weights and measures in their transactions with countries in which metric standards are in use. I may, however, point out that the Act of 1897 removed any legal impediment to the adoption of metric standards. The Government are not prepared to bring in a measure making the use of the system compulsory.