§ 1. Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he can obtain and make available at an early date reports from Consular officers in the countries of Northern Europe in which peat industries and technical schools in connection with them are carried on, comparing from the economical point of view, so far as they know, the supply and quality of peat in those countries with that lying unused in Ireland; its caloric and cash value as a fuel, giving, in English money, the prices of peat fuel and other fuels ready for use at the same place; the commercial value of other products made or obtained from peat; and such other information as they deem useful to persons desirous of introducing peat industries and peat schools in Ireland?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir Edward Grey)Reports on the peat industry in Sweden and Norway were published in the "Board of Trade Journal" of 1st September, 1910, and the 2nd and 9th March, 1911, in addition to those previously published in the Journal of the Irish Department of Agriculture in June, 1902, and March, 1904. I could not undertake to instruct Consular officers to take the special steps that would be necessary 2104 to obtain reports of so technical a nature as the hon. Member suggests, unless the necessity for doing so is confirmed by the Departments of His Majesty's Government immediately concerned.