HC Deb 18 October 1916 vol 86 c546
53. Major CHAPPLE

asked the Prime Minister whether he will set up a committee charged with the duty of inquiring into the financial relations of the State to controlled industries in the Munitions Department, and of reporting on any scheme under which the machinery, plant, buildings, or land provided by the Government, instead of being sacrificed or trafficked with at the end of the War, may be handed over to the manufacturing firms concerned, in return for an equitable interest in shares in any post-war industry to which they may be applied, with a view to such interest being made available through a Trust Commission for the endowment of scientific and technical education, and of any other public service calculated to develop our trade, commerce and industry?

The PRIME MINISTER

This question will come within the ambit of the inquiries which the Government are instituting into the situation which will arise after the War, and my hon. Friend's suggestion will not be lost sight of.