§ 65. Sir JOHN LONSDALEasked the President of the Board of Trade if power-loom manufacturers in the Belfast and Dublin districts are experiencing increasing difficulty in securing supplies of spun cotton from Lancashire and that consequently workers are often enforcedly idle; that, in order to relieve congestion on the railways, Lancashire spinners have conveyed their cotton by motor lorries from the mills to the ship-side, but that this traffic has been held up at Liverpool; and that supplies of materials carried by Scotch railways and steamboats reach Ireland practically without delay; and if he will inquire into the organisation of the English railways and steamboats with the view of facilitating traffic and removing these difficulties from this Irish industry?
Mr. RUNCIMANI am aware that there has recently been some difficulty experienced in connection with the transit of traffic of this description from England to Ireland, owing partly to the limited amount of shipping accommodation available under the present circumstances. I doubt whether any such general inquiry as is suggested could usefully be undertaken, but I am in communication with certain of the railway companies upon specific complaints which have reached me, and any further complaints that I may receive will have careful attention?
§ Sir J. LONSDALEWill the right hon. Gentleman send a representative down to Liverpool to inquire into the matter?
Mr. RUNCIMANThe Board of Trade has its representative in Liverpool now. We have made inquiries, and we are making inquiries there every two or three days into the state of the traffic.