§ 62. Viscount CURZONasked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been drawn to the statement of the chairman of the Anglo-Persion Oil Company to the effect that the contract under which his company undertakes to supply the Shell Trading Company with the whole of its output will expire in 1922, unless the Government should think fit in the meantime to interfere and declare that it is one in restraint of trade; and, in view of this statement and the effect of the enhanced price of petrol on trade and the cost of living, he will consider the advisability of interfering with this contract and secure the retail in this country of the whole of the output of this company free from the control of any oil trust and at the lowest possible figure?
§ Sir H. GREENWOODI understand that this contract has now been in force for over seven years and was arranged at a time when the Anglo-Persian Oil Company had no other means of disposing of its production. I do not consider that His Majesty's Government can now intervene in the manner suggested.