§ 17. Mr. MACKINDERasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will supply a list of industries which have applied for safeguarding since the inception of the Act?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI would refer the hon. Member to the answer given on the 19th February to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland, of which I am sending him a copy.
Captain BENNHow is it possible to answer a question in this House by reference to an earlier answer when it asks for information to-day?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe information contained in the previous answer was complete, both at the time it was given and at the present time.
§ Mr. KIRKWOODDoes that, mean that the clerks allow the same question to go through twice without being answered
§ Mr. SPEAKERSome hon. Members are so pertinacious that it is not always possible to stop them.
§ 18. Mr. MACKINDERasked the President of the Board of Trade what provision will be made by the Board of Trade Committee, under the safeguarding scheme, for receiving evidence from importers., merchants and others, whose interests may be materially affected by the action which may be taken on the reports of such Committees?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI would refer the hon. Member to the answer which I gave on the 17th February to the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, of which I am sending him a copy.
§ Mr. LEES SMITHis the right hon. Gentleman aware that the answer given on the 17th February contradicted the statement made by the Parliamentary Secretary during the Debate on this question?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERNo, Sir, I am not aware of that. The answer on the 17th February represented the information and the decision which I had arrived at on the 17th February and that is a decision to which I now adhere.
§ Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKEIs the hon. Member entitled, in a question, to refer to something that was said in Debate?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI see no reason to interfere. It is a form of elucidation.
19. Mr. SMITHfurther asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in the case of a number of applications being received from industries for safeguarding on the grounds of competition alleged to arise from depreciation of currency in a given country acting so as to create an export bounty, the decision as to whether that depreciation so operates or not is to be arrived at by each committee separately?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe question whether the depreciation of currency has given rise to exceptional competition must necessarily depend in part upon the facts of each particular case, and, consequently, must be examined in the light of those facts by the committee concerned.
Mr. SMITHWill any steps be taken to see that all the committees will arrive at the same conclusion on the same question?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERNo, Sir; the committees will be left to make their own reports. As I think the hon. Gentleman, who is a distinguished economist, knows, the effect of a bounty may be very different in different industries, varying with the amount that they have to buy abroad.
20. Mr. SMITHalso asked the President of the Board of Trade what is the standard recognised by the Board of Trade in deciding what is and what is not profitable manufacture under the safeguarding of industries proposals?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERThe hon. Member will see from the White Paper that the question of the prices at which goods in respect of which a complaint is made can be profitably manufactured in this country is one upon which the committee of inquiry will be instructed to report in each case.
Mr. SMITHIs not the right hon. Gentleman laying down any uniform standard as to what profitable manufacture is, for the guidance of the different committees:?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERNo, Sin I should have thought that all reasonable men would be able to understand the difference between profit and loss,
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERNo, Sir. I think the discretion which is left to the committee is a very practical one. They have to find two things—in the first place. whether the industry is efficiently undertaken in this country, and, secondly, whether it is able to manufacture goods at a profit. [HON. MEMBERS: "What profit?"] That is what they were invited to do under the previous Act, and I think it is a very practical matter to leave to them.