HC Deb 19 November 1951 vol 494 cc8-9
18. Mr. P. Roberts

asked the Minister of Supply whether he will take immediate steps to improve the scrap allocation from Germany over the next six months.

Mr. Sandys

The United Kingdom's share of available ferrous scrap from Germany is governed by an agreement concluded last September between the British, American and West German Goverments.

Mr. Roberts

Can my right hon. Friend say whether deliveries so far under that agreement are up to date, because they have not been in the past; secondly, are there not negotiations of a general character going on with the Bonn Government at the present time, and will he press for a review of the question of the allocation of scrap from Germany, because in the next six months it is vital, if our steel production is to be kept up, that we should get more scrap?

Mr. Sandys

Negotiations took place and resulted in the agreement to which I have referred. The allocations which we have received are not in terms of tons, but in terms of a proportion above a certain figure which goes as first priority to German industry.

Mr. George Chetwynd

As an interim measure in this emergency, could we not get some of the scrap which has been allocated to the United States sent to this country instead?

Mr. Sandys

We are already receiving, as compared with the United States, quite a generous share of the scrap which is available from Germany, but the total amount which has become available in the last few months has been deplorably low. We are looking into the question of the cause, and also investigating whether the collection in Germany cannot be improved.

Mr. Maurice Edelman

Have not our difficulties been much exaggerated by the intervention of American private enterprise merchants who have not been subject to effective control by their own Government, and will the right hon. Gentleman not try to evolve some concerted form of control with America in order that individuals may not in isolation go to Germany and obtain scrap which should really be due to this country?

Mr. Sandys

I do not think that that is the case, but if the hon. Gentleman will give me the facts I will gladly look into them. As far as I know, the proportions have been observed.

Mr. Walter Fletcher

When is the earliest date at which this agreement can be revised?

Mr. Sandys

The problem is not the agreement, but the very small collection of scrap in Germany in the last few months.

Mr. Roberts

Is it not a fact that the agreement itself is not a very satisfactory one, and that, if there is still time to alter its basis, the country would benefit thereby?