§ 2. Mr. Russellasked the President of the Board of Trade why the forthcoming issue of the Statistical Abstract for the British Commonwealth is to contain statistics only up to 1947; and what is the cause of the delay in publishing later statistics.
Mr. H. WilsonThe delay in publishing the 70th edition of the Statistical Abstract for the British Commonwealth, which should be on sale before the end of the year, is largely due to the dislocation in the statistical services of this and other Commonwealth countries caused by the war. I regret this delay and hope that the measures which are now being taken will result in a service of more up-to-date statistics.
§ Mr. RussellIs the Minister aware that the pre-war statistics were usually published within one year of the end of the year concerned, and cannot he hold out some hope of bringing this service back to its pre-war level?
Mr. WilsonI have explained the reason why, since the war, it has not been possible to get information from other countries as quickly as we would like. I hope to resume very quickly a speedy service of publication, particularly on the trade statistics side.