§ COLONEL KENYON-SLANEY (Shropshire, Newport)To ask the hon. Member for South' Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether his attention has been called to the fact that a considerable quantity of Dutch cheese is being put on the English market and labelled in the retail shops as Dutch Cheshire, and that the producers of genuine Cheshire 503 cheese are suffering heavily in consequence; and whether, in view of the provisions of the Act passed to protect the public from the sale of food under false description, the Board of Agriculture will at once take the necessary steps to give to the British farmers and the British public the protection to which they are entitled.
(Answered by Sir Edward Strachey.) We have for some time past been making inquiry into this matter, but up to the present we have not obtained any definite information that any offence under the Merchandise Marks Acts has been committed. The matter will continue to receive attention, and proceedings will at once be instituted if the necessary evidence of any infringement of the law is forthcoming.
| — | Values as Declared. | Estimated Value according to the prices prevailing in 1873 (based on the Board of Trade Index Number). |
| Million pounds. | Million pounds. | |
| Imports: Total | 645.9 | 933.2 |
| Exports: | ||
| British and Irish | 416.2* | 600.7* |
| Foreign and Colonial | 92.0 | 132.8 |
| * Excluding the value of ships and boats (new) with their machinery. The declared value of these items amounted to £10,000,000. |