§ MR. H. H. MARKSI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Homo Department whether he has received information that 15-ounce packets of soap, 414 made up by firms in the Soap Trust in the form in which one-pound packets were formerly made, are being sold without any reduction in price; and whether, for the protection of the public, he will direct the attention of the inspectors of weights and measures to the matter.
§ *MR. GLADSTONEI have no official information on this subject and I do not gather that the packets are or ever were sold as one-pound packets. There would appear therefore to be no ground for any action on my part. I notice, however, in the Press this morning a statement to the effect that the manufacture of 15-ounce tablets have been abandoned and that the tablets are now being made of full one-pound weight.
§ MR. CLAUDE HAYasked whether any of the soap used in the House of Commons was supplied by the Soap Trust.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI am afraid that the question of soap does not in any way come within the province of my Department.