§ MR. MARKHAM (Nottinghamshire, Mansfield)To ask the President of the Board of Trade, whether, seeing that the Governments of America, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries have, during the last ten years, passed laws regulating the methods of distributing high-tension current by overhead wires, which has resulted in a widely employed use of electricity for industrial 1027 purposes, he will say whether, in view of the restrictions of the Board of Trade, there is a single case in Great Britain or Ireland where high-tension current over-head wires have been installed.
§ MR. MARKHAMTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, whether, in view of the continued refusals of the Board of Trade to grant facilities to manufacturers in this country to use high-tension bare wires, for the alleged reason that these wires might be dangerous to the public, he has taken any steps to ask the Foreign Office to obtain Reports from His Majesty's Consuls Abroad as to whether any accidents have been caused by this system of power transmission; and if he has not done so will he communicate with the Foreign Office on the subject with a view of obtaining these Reports.
(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) I will answer the hon. Member's Questions together and refer him to the Answer given to a similar Question which he put to me on the 24th of June last.† The Board of Trade have not refused to grant facilities to manufacturers for the use of high-tension bare wires. Until quite recently the Department has not been asked to sanction this method of supply. As was stated in reply to the hon. Member's previous Question, the Board will give their best consideration to applications for the use of high voltage, dealing with each case on its merits.