§ 18. Mr. Farthingasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware of the shortage of production in the tailoring trade; and whether he is now in a position to issue more materials for clothing in the home market for the purpose of enabling clothing departments, large or small, to keep their employees fully employed and not on short time as at present.
§ Mr. MarquandI am aware that the supply of cloth for the tailoring industry falls short in some cases of the demand. This is due to the general shortage of labour in the textile industries, and, despite every effort to attract more workers into these industries, the rate of increase at present is very slow. Nevertheless, with the end of the holiday season and the general upward tendency of textile output there should be some improvement in the coming months.
§ Mr. Walter FletcherWill the hon. Gentleman explain why it is necessary to export cloth of this sort to Belgium, a country to which, on figures given to me by his Department, we have exported £11 million more goods than we have imported in the first six months of this year?
§ Mr. MarquandIn response to repeated appeals from the trade, a certain amount is allowed free of allocation to particular markets. If there has been an increase to Belgium in that way it must have been due to the independent judgment of exporters.