§ 4. Mr. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will now make a further statement as to how far the Argentine Government have fulfilled their promise to import £3 million worth of consumer goods from the United Kingdom; and to what trades chiefly these orders have gone.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftA statement furnished by the Argentine Government shows import authorisations to a value of nearly £3.3 million for goods listed in the exchange of notes of last April. The goods include diesel chassis for buses, spares for motor vehicles, office machinery, gramophone record blanks and materials and gramophone equipment, musical instruments, hand tools and cotton thread.
§ Mr. OsborneHow many of these licences have really become orders? If they have not become orders, have we any hope that the Argentine Government will fulfil their promises under the last Agreement?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe promise of the Argentine Government was to issue these licences, and I have no reason to think that they will not be taken up.
Mr. H. WilsonWould the right hon. Gentleman study the very violent criticisms made by Members of his party during the previous debate on the Argentine Agreement—I think it was on 3rd July, 1951—and consider how far those criticisms apply with even greater strength to the Agreement which the right hon. Gentleman has just made?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftI will consider all criticisms, violent or otherwise, but these licences have, in fact, been issued.