§ Mr. H. HyndMr. Speaker, Sir, with your permission I wish to present a Petition signed by the chairman of the Council and 800 inhabitants of the comparatively small town of Rishton, one of those Lancashire towns suffering from depression in the cotton industry. They make three points which have not been made in previous Petitions, namely, that half the mills in the town are shut down, that the population has declined from 7,400 to 5,500 since the war, and—this is a significant point—that 3 per cent. of the houses in the town are standing empty because people have left to find jobs elsewhere.
The prayer reads as follows:
Wherefore, your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will take immediate action (i) to limit the importation of textile goods produced under unfair competitive conditions at prices with which it is not possible to compete in this country; (ii) to endeavour by all means possible to encourage and foster the consumption in the United Kingdom of textile goods produced in Britain; and (iii) to extend the demand in foreign markets for textiles 742 produced in Britain when negotiating trade agreements.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.
§ Mr. Anthony GreenwoodMr. Speaker, with your permission and that of the House, I wish to present a Petition signed by the Mayor of Haslingden, Councillor Ben Fisher, and over 4,000 people in the Borough of Haslingden in the County Palatine of Lancaster. It is a town which is very greatly dependent on the cotton industry, and the Petition draws attention to the decline of the industry in recent years following a drop in exports and a rise in the importation of fibres and manufactured goods made overseas. This, says the Petition,
has resulted in widespread depression in the industry with unemployment and underemployment to an extent not fully revealed in the published statistics.The Petition concludes:Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that your Honourable House will take action without delay to limit the import of cheap textiles produced under unfair competitive conditions and will devote itself to saving the cotton towns of Lancashire from becoming derelict by taking prompt action to stimulate and revive the cotton industry.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.
§ Mr. RhodesI beg to present a Petition on behalf of some 28,000 citizens of the Borough of Ashton-under-Lyne and district. The Petition is similar in its terms to those Petitions coming from other areas in the County Palatine. After reciting the circumstances and the difficulties and the growing unemployment in the district, it continues:
Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that your Honourable House will take effective action to secure the stabilisation of the textile industry so that it will be prosperous in times of peace and capable of meeting the country's need in any time of emergency and so that the textile workers may be assured of reasonable security of employment.It concludes:And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.