§ SIR HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if the attention of the Government has been called to the importation for consumption last year of upwards of £110,000,000 worth of articles wholly or mainly manufactured in foreign countries, and to the fact that one-half of these imports consisted of finished articles, giving no employment to British 804 artisans, and if, in devising schemes for the relief of the distress prevailing from want of employment, His Majesty's Government will consider the influence of this foreign competition with the staple industries of the masses of the people.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am informed that the figures of the importation of manufactured and partly manufactured goods is somewhere over £100,000,000 a year. So much for that part of my hon. friend's Question. As to the Question which deals with the whole problem of protection or non-protection, I think my hon. and gallant friend will agree with me that I can hardly deal with it in answer to a Question across the floor of the House.