§ Sir WILLIAM HOLLAND (Yorkshire, W.R., Rotherham)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been directed to a resolution passed at the recent joint conference of the Cotton Employers Parliamentary Association and the United Textile Factory Operatives Association, in which the conference expressed its conviction that the cotton industry of the United 1083 Kingdom owed its pre-eminence to the policy of free trade and pledged itself to resist proposals to impose taxes upon food or raw materials; and whether, in view of the importance of this industry in Lancashire and of the number of persons involved in it, the Government will, in the course of their inquiry into our fiscal system, take evidence upon its position.and requirements from those who are engaged in it as employers and operatives.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) I have seen the resolution referred to. I have nothing to add to the answers I have given in reference to the inclusion or the exclusion of particular subjects of the inquiry. Of course any observations from the persons named in the Question will be carefully considered.