§ 66. Lieutenant-Colonel PICKERINGasked the Secretary for Foreign Affairs if he is aware that English merchants engaged in shipping textiles are handicapped and inconvenienced owing to the delay in issuing permits to ship to Scandinavia, and that other countries are rapidly securing the trade, particularly America; and whether he proposes to take any action in this matter?
§ Major GERVASE BECKETTIt is true that exports of textiles to Scandinavia are subjected to difficulties and delays owing to the necessity of obtaining guarantees from local associations in those countries against re-export to the Central Empires. Licences cannot be granted until these guarantees have been obtained. The same difficulty attaches to exports from the other Allied and neutral countries, and His Majesty's Government are not aware that the United States of America, to whom I presume the hon. and gallant Member refers, are able obtain any advantage from this system. The question of abandoning or modifying this system of guarantees is receiving the attention of His Majesty's Government.