§ SIR SAMUEL SCOTT (Marylebone, W.)To ask the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that a daily Consular Report upon the trade of foreign countries is issued in the United States of America, and that weekly Reports are issued by the Department of Trade and Commerce of Canada; and whether, in view of the inconvenience caused to commercial men in this country owing to being unable to obtain the Reports of British Consuls on the trade of foreign countries until they are often useless, he will consider the advisability of instructing British Consuls to forward 249 short monthly Reports on the trade of the countries to which they are credited.
(Answered by Earl Percy.) I am aware of the Reports referred to. The weekly Board of Trade journal includes a large amount of commercial information, based on Reports specially supplied by British Consuls, who have been required since 1886 to send home short notes suitable for this purpose. Where even more immediate publication is desirable, in the interests of British trade, the Board of Trade make a practice of sending notices to the Press. The annual Consular Reports, whether of this country or of the United States, cannot of course be prepared until the necessary statistics are available, and are mainly reviews of the trade of the year.