§ 61. Mr. C. WILLIAMSasked the Minister of Transport if he will see that all county authority contracts for road materials, to which grants are made by the Ministry and for which tenders are now being issued, are given to firms supplying British materials?
§ Mr. HERBERT MORRISONIt is a condition of all grants from the Road Fund towards the cost of works expedited for the relief of unemployment that all materials shall, so far as practicable, have their origin in the United Kingdom and all manufactured articles shall have been manufactured in the United Kingdom, subject, however, to such exceptions as I may find to be necessary or desirable in any particular case, having regard to all the circumstances including comparative prices of British and foreign articles. Failing the purchase of the necessary supplies from sources 405 within the United Kingdom, products of the Overseas Empire must be used where-ever possible. Local authorities have also been informed that it is my desire that the application of the principle underlying this condition should not be confined to works specifically expedited for the relief of unemployment but should be observed as widely as possible in connection with all expenditure on highways. I am sending the hon. Member a copy of a letter upon the subject which was circulated to all local authorities in February of last year.
§ Mr. WILLIAMSCannot the right hon. Gentleman do something more than just write letters on the subject, seeing that there are over 40,000 quarrymen out of work at the present time?
§ Mr. MORRISONI have repeatedly answered the question about the quarries. I have impressed upon local authorities the desirability of a British preference, and the local authorities practically universally give it, but the trouble is that the quarry owners in a number of cases are not ready to supply. That is a pitiable state of affairs and ought not to exist. If the hon. Gentleman asks me to make an absolute prohibition, I am not willing to do it.