§ SIR EDGAR VINCENTI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether information regarding the number of unemployed in foreign countries as compared with the number in Great Britain could be obtained for the instruction of this House; and whether he could furnish returns showing the comparative frequency and comparative severity of fluctuations in the demand for skilled and unskilled labour in protectionist and free-trade countries.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURIt is quite impossible to obtain statistics regarding the number of unemployed in foreign countries on a basis which would enable sound comparisons to be made with the figures for this country published by the Labour Department of the Board of Trade. I hope, however, to lay on the Table of the House a Return embodying such information as is available with regard to fluctuations of employment both in this and other countries.