§ MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that there is a bounty or rebate of five francs per quarter paid by the French Government on all malt made in France and shipped to England, and that such bounty-fed malt is now coming to London, and being offered to the English brewers at a price from three to four shillings below the price of English malt; and what steps he can take to save English maltsters and the barley growers in this country from this competition.
MR. FELL had given notice of the following Question alsoTo ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that there is a duty of eight francs per quarter on malt imported into France; and whether, in view of the effect of this duty upon the export of English malt into that country, he proposes to take any action in the matter.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. LLOYD-GEORGE,) Carnarvon BurghsI will answer the two Questions of the hon. Member together. The French import duty on malt is four francs per 100 kilogrammes. I am not aware of any bounty on exported malts. Possibly the hon. Member is referring to the system of "temporary admission," under which the import duty on barley is remitted on condition of exporting an equivalent amount of malt. I have no reason to suppose that this system gives rises to a bounty. Up to the end of last month only 60 cwts. of malt had been imported into the United Kingdom from France, since the beginning of 1905.
§ MR. FELLMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman if he could make further inquiry as to what is going on at the present time? I am informed there are 500 quarters of malt from France in the Thames at the present moment.
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGEIf the hon. Member will give me any particulars of that sort I shall certainly inquire.