§ SIR EDWARD SASSOONTo ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he would state the value of wholly finished articles, imported into the United Kingdom in 1906–7, utilised and consumed in this country without undergoing any process of manufacture.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) The total value of wholly manufactured articles imported in a state ready for consumption in 1906, so far as any exact classification is possible, is estimated at about £62,500,000, and in 1907 about£61,800,000. It is not possible to state precisely how much of this total represents articles actually consumed in this country, but the value of the re-exports of imported articles of a similar class is estimated to have been about £11,100,000 in 1906 and £12,100,000 in 1907. These estimates have been prepared on a similar basis to those given in the second series of Memoranda on British and Foreign Trade and Industry [Cd. 2337, of 1904] and in the Return moved for last session by the hon. Member for Falkirk Burghs [House of Commons Paper No. 190, of 1907].