§ 61. Mr. BUTCHERasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been drawn to advertisements issued by the Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Milk Company in Germany repudiating the suggestion that the organisation is an English company and stating that the company is constituted with Swiss capital, with establishments in Germany where the company employs all German raw materials, coal, sugar, wood, etc., and where salaries are paid to German workmen, and stating also that the amount of their purchases of German products considerably exceeds their sales of condensed milk in Germany; whether the English branch of the company in question is supplying goods to the Admiralty and the War Office Contract Departments; and whether any steps have been taken to ensure that such goods are not the produce of an enemy country?
Mr. HARCOURTThe attention of the Board of Trade was drawn some time ago to the advertisement in question, which was, I understand, issued by the manager of one of the company's factories in Germany. The company is a Swiss concern, and I am informed that its interests in enemy countries are relatively small, nearly the whole of its output being produced in the United Kingdom or in neutral countries. The goods supplied by the company before and since the War to the Admiralty and War Office are made at the company's factories in England or America.
§ Mr. BUTCHERAre we to understand that the statements in the issued advertisements are incorrect?