HC Deb 31 January 1952 vol 495 cc342-3
12. Mr. Ralph Morley

asked the President of the Board of Trade if his attention has been called to the large quantities of iron and steel scrap being exported from Southampton; and what action he proposes to take to put a stop to this.

Mr. P. Thorneycroft

It is the policy of my Department to refuse licences for the export of iron and steel scrap, that is, of primary iron and steel products and iron and steel manufactures, where the value is less than £40 a ton. I am aware of recent exports of certain second-hand vehicles from Southampton, but these were not scrap.

Mr. Morley

Is the Minister aware that tanks, gunboats and armoured cars have been freely exported from Southampton for some time past and that the town quay was littered with tanks and hundreds of boxes of scrap? What does he think is the feeling of the people of Southampton, who are told that they cannot reconstruct the blitzed areas of their town because of shortage of steel, when they see all this steel being exported?

Mr. Thorneycroft

These were not exports of scrap. They were exports of demilitarised vehicles, mainly, I understand, to Israel, and as such they certainly were not scrap within the meaning of the hon. Member's Question.

Brigadier O. L. Prior-Palmer

To what country have these vehicles been exported?

Mr. Thorneycroft

They were, in the main, exported to Israel, and the export was authorised by the previous Government.

Mr. Morley

Is the Minister aware that a number of these exports went to Holland as well as to Israel, and would not the people who are importing these vehicles use them as scrap for the purpose of fresh manufactures? Does the right hon. Gentleman think that if his predecessor made a mistake, he must continue with that mistake?

Mr. Thorneycroft

I think not. That is the purpose of the Order which we have made to ensure that the value must be more than £40 a ton, which, of course, is far beyond the scrap value. The hon. Member can take it that when people are buying vehicles at that conversion rate they would not be buying them for scrap.