§ MR. SHACKLETON (Lancashire, Clitheroe)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state on what grounds the British delegate to the Convention of Berne declined to sign the treaty prohibiting the use of yellow phosphorus in the manufacture of matches; whether this treaty has been signed by the representatives of France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands; and, if so, whether, in view of the risks involved in the handling of yellow phosphorus, His Majesty's Government will follow the example of those seven countries and adhere to the treaty.
§ *MR. GLADSTONEThe Convention prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches was signed by the representatives of the countries mentioned in the Question. The grounds which led His Majesty's Government to instruct the delegates to abstain from signing the Convention do not admit of being stated within the compass of an Answer, but they will be fully explained in papers which I shall shortly lay upon the Table of the House.
§ MR. J. WARDI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the withdrawal of the British delegates from the International Labour Conference at Berne during the discussion of the proposed interdiction of white phosphorus in match factories; whether he gave orders for such withdrawal; and if not, what action, if any, he proposes to take to bring the views of his Department upon the subject before the nations represented at the Conference.
§ *MR GLADSTONEMy hon. friend has been misinformed. The British delegates did not withdraw from the Conference when the proposal to prohibit the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches was under discussion. On the contrary, they stated fully the views of the British Government on the subject.