§ 18. Mr, Skeffington-Lodgeasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will increase the supplies of yarn for making cloth for bookbinding so as to match the quantity of books which is being produced with the paper now available.
§ Mr. BelcherThe allocation of cotton yarn for book cloth was raised in March last, and increased supplies of cloth should shortly be coming forward. I am well aware that book cloth is short and hope soon to be able to raise the allocation further but there are many other important claims on our limited supplies of cotton yarn, and I cannot undertake to see that increases in the supply of book cloth will be exactly matched up with increases in the supply of paper.
§ Mr. Skeffington-LodgeIs my hon. Friend aware that the gap between supplies of book cloth and the amount of paper available for publishing books is a 1588 of the Department I represent, is that our own people are still in need.