HC Deb 28 January 1954 vol 522 cc1958-60
47. Mr. de Freitas

asked the President of the Board of Trade what advice and assistance he has given to the proposed trade mission to Moscow, which includes representatives of the Lincoln firms of Ruston and Hornsby and Rose Brothers

Mr. P. Thorneycroft

The Board of Trade have from the outset given their full support to this party of businessmen over their visit to Moscow, and have advised them about the types of goods in which we should welcome an expansion of trade with the Soviet Union.

Mr. de Freitas

Is the President aware that trade with Russia in engineering products is one of the traditional trades of Lincoln, and will he ask the Foreign Secretary to be careful not to imply, as he previously did, that enterprising firms are Communists merely because they want to revive trade with a Communist country?

Mr. Thorneycroft

No such suggestion has ever been made.

Mr. de Freitas

May I refer the President of the Board of Trade to the recent Question and answer in connection with those who want to trade with China?

Mr. Thorneycroft

There was an organisation operating in this field, which was a Communist front organisation, but these traders are not operating through that organisation today. This body of businessmen are proceeding under their own power and with the full support of the Board of Trade.

Mr. H. Wilson

Can the right hon. Gentleman produce a shred of evidence to support the assertion he has just made, that the organisation to which he has referred was a Communist front organisation?

Mr. Thorneycroft

I would refer the right hon. Gentleman to the Question that was put to the Foreign Secretary, and his answer.

Mr. de Freitas

Will the right hon. Gentleman produce the evidence?

Mr. Pannell

Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that this trade between the engineering trade of this country and Eastern Europe is traditional and has gone on for the last 100 years? Will he also bear in mind that in the 'thirties, when the engineering trade in this country was in a period of acute depression, over 80 per cent. of the machine tool exports went to Russia and Poland? In view of the probable recession in America, is it not very important that the Government should encourage the resumption of all the trade possible within the bounds of national security?

Mr. Thorneycroft

I fully appreciate that, and, indeed, it is our policy to foster all the trade possible in non-strategic goods.