§ 19. Mr. Liptonasked the President of the Board of Trade how many firms are licensed to import Swiss watches; when they were selected; and on what basis.
§ Mr. MaudlingThree hundred and nine firms are licensed to import Swiss watches. They were selected in 1946 on the basis of their imports of watches from all sources in the year 1st September, 1938, to 31st August, 1939.
§ Mr. LiptonIs is not a quite ridiculous state of affairs that this decision should be frozen on a 1938 basis? Is it not time for the wind of change to blow away this cobweb? What has happened to the principles of Tory freedom? When is this business to be thrown open to all who wish to take part in it and not be limited to a few firms who are bribed into parting with their allocation to enable other people to import these watches?
§ Mr. MaudlingThe hon. Member has quoted one of the classic arguments against controls of all kinds, and the sooner we can get rid of them all, the better I shall be pleased. As to the more expensive watches, they will be all on open general licence in the near future— in fact, they are already—and progressively we are increasing the quotas for other watches. But as long as we have quotas it is difficult to find a satisfactory alternative to a licensing system.
Mr. H. WilsonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that he will find from his files that between 1945 and 1951 we removed a very high proportion of these controls based on a past period because we felt even then, 12 years ago, that 1938–39 and 1941–42 were too remote? Is it not time now in 1960 for the President of the Board of Trade to work out a more up-to-date system?
§ Mr. MaudlingThe only up-to-date system was that on the last occasion when there was no control.