§ 46. Sir Patrick Hannonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state the extent to which the functions of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation operate in the interests of British export trade; and if the activities of the corporation are to be continued in the future.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Dalton)The Corporation has done an excellent wartime job, in the course of which it has been able to help exporters, particularly to the Middle East, in the allocation of shipping space, and has made available certain guarantee facilities on exports to Turkey. I anticipate that the future activities of the Corporation will gradually diminish.
§ Sir P. HannonWould not the Chancellor consider the propriety of maintaining a little longer this organisation whose work in the past has been so appreciated?
§ Mr. DaltonThe President of the Board of Trade and I are jointly interested in this matter. We do not think this is likely to be a suitable permanent trading organisation, but we consider that it still has some useful duties to perform, and that is why I say that we thought its future activities would greatly diminish.
§ Mr. BoothbyWill the Chancellor of the Exchequer bear in mind the undesirability of establishing permanently anything in the nature of a monopoly in this sphere?