§ MR. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that the late official investigation of the American Government Department of Agriculture has shown that the bull and bear financial panies of 1900–1901, 1903–4, and again in 1905, which have occurred on the Liverpool and American Cotton Exchanges during those years, were indirectly caused by the manipulation of the Government figures representing the various cotton reports, acreage, and estimates of yields, by officials of the American Government Department who were, it is alleged, in secret compact with the exchange bulls and bears, and that it was their joint gambling operations in options and future fictitious contracts on the Liverpool and American Cotton Exchanges that caused the dislocation of the cotton trade of the world generally and particularly that of Lancashire; and whether, in view of the effect of these gambling operations on other trades and railway stocks dependent upon the prosperity of the cotton industry, he can inform the House what measure His Majesty's Government intends to take to prevent a recurrence of the results of those gambling international operations.
1376 (Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) I am advised that, apart from newspaper reports, there is no official information at the disposal of the Government relating to the circumstances detailed in the Question. The Government do not contemplate submitting any proposals to Parliament upon the subject.