§ 30. Sir KINGSLEY WOODasked the President of the Board of Trade whether it is the intention of the Government to introduce legislation designed to prevent the dumping in this country of goods made by sweated labour?
§ Mr. W. GRAHAMThe policy of His Majesty's Government with regard to goods manufactured by sweated labour has been repeatedly stated and I would refer the right hon. Member in particular to the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hacking) on 20th May.
§ Sir K. WOODIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that all those answers were merely a matter of window dressing, I suppose in view of the election.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat is a very improper epithet to use in a question.
§ Sir K. WOODI will put my question in another form, and, if I have in any way offended the right hon. Gentleman I humbly apologise. Will he kindly answer the question, whether or not it is the intention of the Government to introduce legislation? I am not asking about policy.
§ Mr. W. GRAHAMIt would be quite impossible for the right hon. Gentleman 226 to offend me. As regards legislation, it could only be by prohibition or licence or some device of that kind, and I have always informed the House that while this is a very difficult matter, m which we must all try to find a solution, a solution on those lines would aggravate rather than cure the disease.
§ Mr. WISEHave the Government taken any steps at Geneva or elsewhere with a view to putting into operation the scheme for dealing with imported sweated goods formulated by a committee of which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was chairman and which was embodied in "Labour and the Nation."
§ Mr. GRAHAMYes, Sir. At Geneva under numerous heads we have done everything in our power in what is a very difficult field of international negotiation.
§ Sir PHILIP CUNLIFFE-LISTERis it not the case that in "Labour and the Nation" the Government announced that prohibition of sweated imports was their policy, and does the right hon. Gentleman now state that it, would only aggravate the situation?
§ Mr. GRAHAMNo, Sir. The right hon. Gentleman has not accurately apprehended the position. The position is that only as a last resort, after every other effort has been made and has failed in the field of international agreement, would a device of that kind be advisable.
§ Captain Sir WILLIAM BRASSIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the late Lord Oxford and Asquith pointed out that anti-dumping legislation—
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat question does not seem to arise.