44. Mr. PRICEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the official figure of tea stocks at 31st January, 1933, was given to the trade by His Majesty's Customs on 28th February, as 289,591,000 pounds, or nearly 24,000,000 pounds less than the estimate of the trade; that the publication of this decreased figure caused a market rise in prices of common tea; and that the Customs on 14th March stated that 27,000,000 pounds should be added to their previous figure, causing another disturbance to prices; and what steps he proposes to take to avoid a. repetition of such errors and consequent fluctuations in the market?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Hore-Belisha)All possible precautions are taken to ensure the accuracy of official returns; but in this instance information which should have been available when the return was compiled had not been furnished in full in the case of certain bonded tea warehouses. Immediately the discrepancy was discovered the return was amended. Steps have been taken which it is confidently expected will result in complete information being supplied to the Department in time to enable complete statistics to be furnished in future.