§ 19. Lieut.-Colonel Bromley-Davenportasked the President of the Board of Trade the purpose of the circulars with regard to the Retail Sales Index, which are now being received by saddlers and retailers of leather goods; and what amount of paper has been used in this connection.
§ Sir S. CrippsA sample of independent retailers in each of the main non-food trades is being approached and asked to make monthly returns of their total sales; this information is needed to supplement the monthly statistics of retail sales by larger retailers which have been collected through the Bank of England since 1930. A full description of the objects and methods of the scheme was given in the "Board of Trade Journal" for 19th October, 1946. The total amount of paper used for the present approach to traders is under 3½ cwts. This covers specimen forms, explanatory leaflets and the like used for all the traders; no separate figures are available for saddlers and retailers of leather goods.