§ 22. Mr. GEORGE HALLasked the Secretary for Mines what financial assistance in the form of subsidy or concessions in railway rates or any other assistance is given to coal exports from Germany, Poland, or any other coal-exporting country in Europe?
§ Captain CROOKSHANKI will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a statement embodying those methods, so far as they have come to my knowledge, by which European countries assist their coal export trade.
§ Following is the statement:
§ Preferential rates for the movement of coal consigned to contested markets are granted by the State railways in Poland, France, Belgium and Czechoslovakia, and by the railway company in Germany.
§ The German coal industry assists the sale of coal in contested markets by drawing on the proceeds of a levy on all coal sold, and German coal exporters are able in number of markets to secure specially favourable exchange facilities through the operation of the German Government's control of foreign exchange.
§ In Belgium the proceeds of the tax on coal import licences are allocated to the 1813 Belgian coal industry, but it is not known what use is made of this subvention.
§ It is understood that in Czechoslovakia the coal tax is remitted on coal for export.
§ In Poland and Turkey the sale of coal in contested markets is assisted by the charging of lower prices for coal for export than for coal for inland consumption.