Mr. J. T. PriceWith your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I rise to present a Petition on behalf of over 1,000 of my constituents resident in the small township of Horwich in Lancashire or working in the textile industry in that town.
The Petition re-emphasises the grave anxieties of Lancashire, as expressed in many similar Petitions submitted to this House in the present Session of Parliament assembled. It draws attention to the serious and continued decline in the textile manufacturing industry which was hitherto the mainstay of Lancashire and the cornerstone of Britain's commercial pre-eminence in the world.
It recites the circumstances in which the former export trade of this country has been eroded by foreign competition and in which the home trade has been detrimentally affected by the ever-increasing flow of cheap imports from Commonwealth and other countries where standards of living are low.
Your Petitioners complain that the prices at which such goods can be sold in this country represent unfair competition with which the Lancashire industry is unable to compete.
The Petition concludes:
Wherefore, your Petitioners 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.