§ 3. Mr. Haleasked the President of the Board of Trade the figures of importation of foreign cloth for each of the first five months of 1953, 1954, and 1955, respectively.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftAs the answer consists of a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. HaleIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the figures which he proposes to circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT are that imports from India for the five months rose from £151,000 in 1953 to £21 million and later in these five months to £3,400,000—[Interruption.] The figures were not available when the Question was put down, but they were published yesterday.
§ Viscount HinchingbrookeIs it in order, Mr. Speaker, for an hon. Member to take up valuable time at Question time by giving information to the House?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Hale) was, on each occasion that he asked a supplementary question, interlarding the question with a lot of extraneous matter which was not 1474 a question at all. I hope the House will co-operate to get through Question Time so that every hon. Member gets a chance.
§ Mr. HaleMay I submit to you, Sir, that these figures were not available when the Question was put down, that they have not been made available in the "Digest of Statistics," and that they were made available in the Library yesterday? On the supplementary question, is it not appropriate and proper for me to ask the President of the Board of Trade to deal with the figures as they are now made available?
§ Mr. SpeakerIf the hon. Member knew that the figures were available, he ought to put down another Question dealing with them and not try to tack comment on to a Question which asks for figures he already has in his possession.
§ Mr. HaleThe supplementary question I am seeking to put, having got the figures, is to ask what is to be done about the figures. That is the whole purpose of putting down a Question of this kind on such a matter.
§ Mr. SpeakerThat is quite a different Question from the Question the hon. Member has on the Order Paper. Mr. Hale, Question No. 4.
§ Mr. HaleFurther to that point of order, Sir, I stand on the rights of hon. Members of this House. It is an immemorial right of hon. Members first to ask for figures and, when the figures are made available, to ask what is in the mind of Her Majesty's Government as a result of those figures and what action will be taken. I was rising to put a perfectly fair supplementary question as to what action is to be taken about these figures, when I was interrupted by the point of order.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member must not think that he is the sole guardian of the rights of the House. There are other hon. Members who have rights just as much as he has, and I hope he will bear that in mind. The Question on the Order Paper was one for information. If he already had the information, he could have taken the Question off. If he desired to comment on the information, he could have put down a Question asking the specific question which he has tried to introduce as a supplementary question. I ask hon. Members, when they ask for information, not to make it just a peg for 1475 an argument which is much more appropriate to a debate on the matter than to Question Time if every hon. Member is to have his chance.
§ Mr. HaleI have never assumed that I am the sole guardian of the rights of the House, but it is also part of the immemorial tradition of this House that when a Member is personally attacked and personally criticised he should have the opportunity on a point of order of putting his point of view, and in that respect I was having regard to the traditions and rights of all hon. Members.
§ Mr. OsborneBut the hon. Gentleman is not the only hon. Member of the House.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder, order. I think the House can judge between us. Mr. Hale, Question No. 4.
§ Mr. HaleOn a point of order, Sir, I am speaking on a matter of vital importance to my constituents. Am I to understand that I cannot ask a supplementary question to Question No. 3, and that nobody else can do so?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member has spoken so much that I have forgotten exactly where he had reached. I thought he had asked a supplementary question and I called him to ask Question No. 4.
§ Mr. HaleI was putting a supplementary question to Question No. 3, Sir, when I was interrupted by a point of order. If it is your Ruling that I cannot complete that supplementary question, I bow to your Ruling.
§ Mr. SpeakerI do not remember where the hon. Member had got to, but I ask him to allow Question hour to proceed in the interests of other hon. Members.
§ Following is the answer:
§ Total imports into the United Kingdom of woven cotton fabrics of standard type (million square yards)
| — | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | ||
| January | … | … | 6.6 | 13.1 | 36.9 |
| February | … | … | 7.9 | 18.7 | 31.2 |
| March | … | … | 10.3 | 18.3 | 31.6 |
| April | … | … | 10.9 | 19.3 | 24.3 |
| May | … | … | 9.2 | 16.2 | 29.9 |
| Total* | … | … | 44.8 | 85.4 | 153.5 |
| *Including amendments not made to the monthly figures. |
§ 12. Mrs. Castleasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that in the first four months of this year the import of grey cotton cloth from India rose to 51 million yards, compared with 38 million yards for the corresponding period of last year, from Japan, to 33 million yards, compared with three million yards, and from Hong Kong, to 18 million yards, compared with two million yards; and what steps he proposes to take to help Lancashire to meet this threat to its employment and prosperity.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftYes, Sir. So far as these imports come from Japan, they are limited by quota and almost entirely re-exported. So far as imports from India and Hong Kong are concerned, I have nothing to add to the statement made by the Prime Minister on 3rd May.
§ Mrs. CastleIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that his complacency about these mounting exports is not shared by the cotton unions, the cotton employers or even by the City Editor of the "Daily Express," who only last week warned him that unless he did something about these rising imports shortly, he would be needing the services of an undertaker for Lancashire? Is the right hon. Gentleman going to sit back and wait for the funeral of the cotton industry?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe hon. Lady makes a lot of assertions, but the proposals which she and her colleagues put forward were very unpopular.
Mr. H. WilsonDoes the right hon. Gentleman recognise that the statement made by the Prime Minister on 30th April, to which he appears to have nothing to add, did not deal with this question? The Prime Minister's Statement referred only to the question of a tariff on Indian goods and there was nothing in that answer dealing with the proposals of the Cotton Board for quotas, nor, indeed, in the proposals made from this side of the House for a public buying commission?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe right hon. Gentleman knows as well as I do the difficulties involved in putting quota restriction on the Commonwealth, and his own proposals for a buying commission, designed to achieve the same ends, would have been a breach of the undertakings 1477 and agreements which he signed when in office and were certainly not acceptable in Lancashire.
Mr. WilsonDoes not the right hon. Gentleman recall that week after week and month after month in this House he stalled on this question of Indian imports because, he said, he was going to wait to see what the Cotton Board had to propose to him; and that after this long pantomime of negotiations with the Cotton Board it became known that the Board had in fact proposed quotas, and that up to that time he had not said that quotas were impossible, but now in a supplementary answer he suggests that quotas were impossible?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftThe right hon. Gentleman knows as well as I do the difficulties about putting a quota restriction on the Commonwealth. To suggest at this time that it would be difficult to put on a tariff, but permissible to put a quota restriction on a Commonwealth industry is a little unrealistic.
§ Mr. ArbuthnotDoes my right my hon. Friend appreciate that if he were to accept all the advice tendered from the other side of the House he would jeopardise our export trade to India to the tune of £100 million a year?
§ Mr. ThorneycroftI certainly have very much in mind all exporting problems, including those of the exporting industries in Lancashire.