§ MR. HOUSTON (Liverpool, West Toxteth)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any official information to the effect that one Argentine railway company, whose shareholders are British and whose board of directors reside in England, recently placed an order for thirty locomotives with German manufacturers; whether he can ascertain the respective prices of the English and German manufacturers; whether there is in the possession of his Department, or that of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a Report from a certain British Consul, stating that the German Government are giving a bounty to German locomotive builders to enable them to successfully compete with English locomotive builders; and whether he will lay the said Consular Report upon the Table; whether he can give any explanation as to the contradictory Report recently received from Berlin to that given by the said British Consul; and whether he will endeavour to ascertain the true facts, and lay them upon the Table.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) I have no official information as to the purchases of locomotives by particular Argentine Railway Companies or the prices at which they are purchased. With regard to the reported German bounty on locomotives I can add nothing to my 816 previous Answer † until the completion of the inquiries now being made.