§ 58. Mr. Ellis Smithasked the President of the Board of Trade by whom the inquiry is being made into industrial design and research, and, in view of the importance of this matter to the export trade, will he consider the need for a 197 comprehensive investigation to be conducted in co-operation with the Board of Education and in consultation with the Trades Union Congress, the Governing Body of the National Register, the Society of Industrial Artists, the Faculty of the Rural Districts Institutes and other representative organisations, and that they be asked to report as soon as possible?
Major Lloyd GeorgeI understand that the National Register of Industrial Art Designers has put forward suggestions as to industrial design research with particular reference to the export trade. These suggestions are being examined by the committee set up by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour to consider the Unemployment of Artists in War-time and by the Export Council, and I should prefer to await their conclusions on the subject. If the other organisations mentioned by my hon. Friend wish to put forward any suggestions on this subject, I am sure that the committee and the Export Council would gladly consider them.