EARL of RONALDSHAYasked the President of the Board of Trade why the statistics and charts of unemployment in certain foreign countries contained in the Fiscal Blue Book, Cd. No. 2337 of 1904, were not continued and brought up to date in the Fiscal Blue Book, Cd. No. 4954 of 1909, which bore on its cover the statement that it was in continuation of certain tables and charts contained in Returns Cd. No. 1761 of 1903 and Cd. No. 2337 of 1904; and whether he would issue the missing statistics and charts as a supplementary volume?
Mr. BUXTONThe principles on which the tables included in the recent volume were selected are stated in the introductory note. The figures referred to in the question, besides being only available for short and diverse periods, are not on a comparative basis, as was fully explained in the Memorandum to which they were appended in the earlier volume. They are therefore quite unsuitable for inclusion in a volume consisting of long period comparative statistical tables without explanatory memoranda.
§ Lord BALCARRESWill the right hon. Gentleman say whether it would be possible to have the 1909 figures published?