§ Mr. ProctorWith your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I wish to present a Petition signed by 7,166 residents of the Borough of Swinton and Pendlebury. The Petition calls attention to the fact that the nation at the end of the Second World War appealed to the cotton industry to increase its production and especially its exports and thus to assist the nation in its hour of economic travail. The industry responded wholeheartedly and the textile workers accepted an assurance that their future would be saved. Unfortunately, widespread depression has taken place in the textile industry mainly due to the vastly increased imports of textiles from overseas produced under unfair competitive conditions.
The Petition states that many textile workers in the area of Swinton and Pendlebury are already unemployed and that many men and women most industrious and highly skilled in the industry are now facing the tragedy of unemployment.
Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that this House will take action without delay to limit the import of cheap textiles and will devote itself to save the cotton towns of Lancashire from becoming derelict by taking vigorous and effective action to revive the cotton industry.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.