§ 2. Mr. Fletcher-Cookeasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will discuss with the Government of Hong Kong how imports of Hong Kong cloth into the United Kingdom can be limited, in view of the refusal of the Hong Kong Cotton Spinners' Association to agree to any voluntary arrangements for limitation.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydIt would be contrary to Her Majesty's Government's policy to impose restrictions on Hong Kong's exports to this country.
§ Mr. Fletcher-CookeWill not my right hon. Friend agree that it is a thousand pities that when the merchants and trade interests in India and Pakistan are anxious and willing to agree to a scheme of voluntary limitation if the merchants and producers in Hong Kong so agree, my right hon. Friend feels, the Hong Kong merchants and producers having refused, that he cannot even use his good offices to ascertain whether they will agree to some tripartite scheme of voluntary limitation?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydI could not accept the inferences in my hon. Friend's question. Hong Kong is a Colony for whose welfare we are responsible. It has concentrated on manufactures largely because of the strategic controls that we imposed upon it, and it would have been in a difficult position if we had not allowed it to develop manufactures in this way. It has no independent membership of G.A.T.T. and it looks to Her Majesty's Government to protect it, as would any part of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. ThorntonWhile I appreciate that the right hon. Gentleman's over-riding interest is the welfare of the colonial peoples, is he not aware that the United Kingdom cotton textile industry is having to pay a disproportionate price for the industrial development in Hong Kong? Is he satisfied that Hong Kong may not make the same mistake as Japan did in concentrating too much on an export industry, the trade of which, according to the trends over the last forty years, has continued to decline in the world? May it not be that Hong Kong will meet the same fate as Japan did?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydWe ought to look at this matter in perspective. Hong Kong production is a minute fraction of United Kingdom production, and the consequence of interfering with the free entry of British Colonies into the United Kingdom market in the interests of a single industry in the United Kingdom would be widespread and would have to be weighed most carefully before any Government took action.