§ 7. Mr. COCKS (for Mr. DOBBIE)asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to what extent His Majesty's Government has given support, official or unofficial, to the British trade mission to the Far East?
§ Mr. BLINDELL (Lord of the Treasury)I have been asked to reply. The assistance extended to the mission organised by the Federation of British Industries, which recently visited Japan and Manchuria, was that which is normally accorded by His Majesty's Government through their appropriate diplomatic and consular representatives to British business men visiting foreign countries in the interests of British trade. 1216 Apart from this, no support of any kind was given by His Majesty's Government to the mission which, as my right hon. Friend stated on the 7th November in answer to a similar question put by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, East (Mr. Mander), was of a strictly commercial and non-political character.