§ 1. Mr. BOLANDasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether representations will be made to the Dutch Government with a view to their recording the purchase of sea-going vessels and including them in their official statistics as imports; whether he is aware that the total value of Irish imports into the Netherlands is seriously under-estimated by reason of the exclusion of Irish-built ships from these statistics; and can he state whether the United States, France, or Belgium, which keep separate records of Irish trade, do or do not include seagoing vessels as imports?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir Edward Grey)I am afraid there is not sufficient ground for suggesting to the Netherlands Government that they should alter the basis on which their imports statistics are compiled. The question of what articles should be included in and what articles excluded from record is one on which different countries are bound to take different views. The United States of America do not record imports of sea-going vessels, possibly because foreign-built vessels are not admitted to the American Registry. Both France and Belgium record such imports, but according to the published returns no sea-going vessels were imported into either country from Ireland in any of the years 1908–10.
§ Mr. BOLANDCould the right hon. Gentleman at least suggest to our Consul that in drawing up his report this year he will put at the end a note indicating the value of Irish-built ships imported into the Netherlands?
§ Sir E. GREYMy recollection is that the Consul placed a note to that effect in his previous reports, but the amount was not put at the end in a tabular statement.