43. Mr. MEEHANasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that Irish and English toilet soap makers are handicapped in competition with American rivals as, owing to the impossibility of procuring brass, nickel-plated, and tin tubes and boxes, they cannot present their goods attractively as heretofore, and the public purchase the attractive American article; if he is aware that many of the American manufacturers put the addresses of their London agents on their boxes, and the public cannot tell whether they are Irish or English made; and whether, in view of the importance of restricting the purchase and consumption of imported articles, especially where, owing to the exigencies of the War, these articles have a competitive advantage over the home-manufactured ones, he will take practical remedial action?
Mr. RUNCIMANI have nothing to add to the reply which I returned to a similar question addressed to me on the 24th February by the hon. and gallant Member for the Enfield Division of Middlesex.