60. Captain BENNasked the President of the Board of Trade whether out of 347,000 cameras imported during the year 1921 only 13,000 came from Germany; and whether, in these circumstances, he can explain why he has appointed a Committee under Part II of the Safeguarding of Industries Act to consider an application for a further duty of 33⅓1 per cent. on the ground that cameras imported from Germany are causing serious unemployment in the camera industry?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe precise figures, as stated in reply to the hon. Member for Whitechapel on the 23rd May, are 324,998 cameras imported from all countries in 1921, of which 13,233 were consigned from Germany. The great bulk of the imports come from the United States of America, and consist of a class of camera which, I am informed, is not strictly competitive with the general range of British-made cameras. In referring the matter to a Committee, the Board of Trade were satisfied that the volume of imports from Germany, considered in relation to the present output of the optical and scientific instruments industry in this country, of which the manufacture of cameras forms a part, was such as to exercise a serious effect on employment in that industry.