§ SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend)I beg to ask the Prime Minister whether he is aware of the existence in Great Britain of trusts, rings, cartels, and other combinations having for their object the monopolisation of trades and markets, by regulating the output or by keeping up prices and stifling competition; and, seeing that such combinations are in restraint of trade, and are, therefore, inconsistent with the present free-trade policy of this country, whether lie will take steps to restrain the increasing monopolistic operations of foreign trusts 1267 in the United Kingdom; and whether the Government will grant a Royal Commission or a Select Committee to inquire into the existence of railway conferences, shipping rings, coal rings, industrial combinations of the iron and steel trades, such as the Railmakers Syndicate and other organisations like the Imperial Tobacco Trust, the Meat Trust, and the German Electrical Manufacturers Trust.
§ Mr. ASQUITHI am aware of the existence of trade combinations of the kind referred to in the United Kingdom, and I agree that in some cases the effects of these may be prejudicial to the public interest. But the operations of such trusts are necessarily more circumscribed and less mischievous here than in other countries in which they are fostered by a general customs tariff, and I doubt whether there would at the present time be any advantage in such an inquiry as the hon. Member suggests.