§ MR. FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that out of 5,400 members of the London Stock Exchange 3,000 are jobbers, whose sole business is stock jobbing and the making of fictitious prices of a gambling nature; that the 2,400 brokers are practically compelled to buy from or sell to those jobbers for any business they may have to transact for the public, and that agencies have been recently opened in London by foreign finance houses, with the primary object of gambling in stock and share operations; and whether, seeing that the number of outside brokers and bucket shops have considerably increased, and in view of the development of stock exchange loan business with the great joint stock banks, with the object of fostering international gambling, His Majesty's Government will consider the advisability of taking measures in conjunction with other Governments to protect producers, manufacturers, consumers, bona fide investors, and speculators from the ruin caused by international bull and bear gambling.
§ (Answered by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.) His Majesty's Government are not prepared to take any action in the direction indicated by the hon. Member.