HC Deb 25 March 1929 vol 226 cc2049-50
18. Mr. CAMPBELL

asked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs whether he will consider the advisability of extending the functions of the Empire Marketing Board to developing inter-imperial trade by seeking in its propaganda to inculcate in the minds of the investing public a voluntary preference for investment of capital within the Empire rather than in foreign countries?

Mr. AMERY

On the general question of enlarging the scope of the Empire Marketing Fund I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to the hon. Member for Anglesey (Sir R. Thomas) on 18th March. But I would point out that statistics show clearly that a voluntary preference such as that referred to by my hon. Friend already exists. I understand that the annual investment of United Kingdom money at home and in the rest of the Empire has since the War been on an average ten times as much as the money invested in foreign countries.

50 and 51. Mr. CAMPBELL

asked the President of the Board of Trade (1) whether his Department has any information in regard to overseas investments which will show the approximate total of British investments of all kinds within the Empire and in foreign countries;

(2) how much of the £285,000,000 shown in a recent Board of Trade Report to have been earned by British investments overseas came from investments within the Empire and how much from investments in foreign countries?

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of TRADE (Mr. Herbert Williams)

As stated in the article in the Board of Trade Journal to which my hon. Friend refers, the results of a recent investigation carried out by Sir Robert Kindersley have been utilised in framing the latest estimate of the importance, in calculations relating to the balance of trade, of our income from investments abroad. The particulars published with regard to this inquiry are not sufficient to show, in respect of the whole field of overseas investment, the proportion of the total capital invested within the Empire or the proportion of the total income derived from investment within the Empire.