§ 105. Mr. SUGDENasked the President of the Local Government Board what steps he proposes to take to prevent the cotton export corporations, now forming in the United States of America with the object of controlling the raw cotton exports to this country, from exploiting the Lancashire cotton spinners, bearing in mind the insufficiency of raw cotton supplies from Empire-grown and other sources?
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANI have been asked to reply. Corporations, which may be in process of formation in the United States are quite outside the jurisdiction of His Majesty's Government. The Government are fully alive to the importance of securing an extension of the areas within the Empire from which the cotton industry derives its raw material, and, as the hon. Member is probably aware, the possibilities of an expansion of cotton-growing within the British Empire are being surveyed systematically by the Empire Cotton Growing Committee, appointed by the Board of Trade in 1917, upon which all important sections of the trade are represented.