§ 63. Sir JOHN LONSDALEasked the President of the Board of Trade if the enemy-owned firm, the Bayer Company, Limited, is still carrying on business in this country, with offices in London, Manchester, and other places; if he is aware that at the new warehouses and offices which are being erected in Manchester for the company a large concrete sign on the roof has disappeared, and instead of the name Bayer and Company on the windows B. and Co. has been substituted, and that the firm in their trading circulars claims to be a British company; if he has considered the fact that the entire capital of the company, with the exception of twenty-four £10 shares, is held by Germans resident in Germany, and that the parent company, the Farhenfabricken Vorm Fr. Bayer and Company, which holds 9,912 of 10,000 shares of the Bayer Company, is engaged in making poison-gas and high explosives for the German Army; and if he intends to wind up the business of this company under the powers of the Trading With the Enemy Act, 1916?
Mr. RUNCIMANI recently requested the Committee appointed to advise the Board of Trade on the application of the Trading With the Enemy Amendment Act, 1916, to consider the case of the Bayer Company, Limited. As soon as a report is received from the Advisory Committee I will decide whether an order should be made requiring the business to be wound up.
§ Sir J. LONSDALEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the managing director holds only twenty shares, and that practically the whole profits of the company will go into the pockets of the German shareholders?
§ Sir J. LONSDALEWill it not be a scandal if the money made in the business is handed over to the Germans who are making poison-gas for use against our troops?