§ 10. Sir CYRIL COBB,asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to the hardship suffered by British investors in the various Argentine railways owing to local restrictions imposed upon them, with the result that staff in excess of requirements cannot be discharged and unnecessary expenditure reduced; and will he make suitable representations to the Argentine government on behalf of British investors who have lent their savings to provide railways for Argentina upon which they are now receiving very little return?
§ Sir J. SIMONI am informed that the more effective and economic use of labour on railways in Argentina, and its regulation, are included in the scope of an award recently issued by the President of the Argentine Republic as arbitrator between the Railway Companies and the labour unions. The full bearing of the award will be known when the National Railway Board has issued its findings on labour regulations, in accordance with a clause of the award which provides that these findings shall be issued within a period of three months. No request for intervention has been received by His Majesty's Government, and I do not consider that such a step would at the present stage serve any useful purpose in view of the circumstances which I have described.
§ Mr. WILMOTIs it not true that the hardships which British investors have suffered in this connection, arise very largely out of the Government's Ottawa policy?
§ Sir J. SIMONI do not think there is any connection at all.
§ Mr. KIRKPATRICKIs it not the fact that a very large number of the employés of the Argentine railways are British subjects?
§ Sir J. SIMONI have no doubt there are British subjects among them, but I do not know the proportion.