§ MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether in the Customs Statistical Office in the compilation of the Board of Trade Returns of Imports and Exports any of the entries in the Primary Import and Export Registers of Free Merchandise are checked into those registers from the documents passed by importers and exporters, so as to insure that the particulars thus supplied are correctly shown in the Trade Returns; and, if so, whether he can state approximately the proportion of such entries appearing in those registers which were so checked during the past year.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) A considerable number of entries of Free Merchandise, sufficient to insure reasonable accuracy, are checked into the Primary Registers during the course of each month, but as no record is kept of the number so checked the Board of Customs are unable to state the proportion for the past year.