HC Deb 01 May 1961 vol 639 cc875-6
1. Mr. Mayhew

asked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what progress has been made with his scheme for selling low-priced books overseas.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Dr. Charles Hill)

Since my answer to the hon. Gentleman on 6th February, and that to the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Mr. G. M. Thomson) on 20th February, our low-priced university textbooks have begun selling in India. Already repeat orders are coming in. Five further low-priced textbooks are now being produced. I will circulate their titles in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

We shall shortly begin producing our groups of books to aid the study of English. Initial printings of these should amount to some 400,000 copies.

To complement our low-priced books scheme, we have decided to produce an annotated catalogue of British books selected because of their particular value to overseas readers.

Mr. Mayhew

Will the Minister say how many books we sold and how many he expects to have sold by the end of the year? What precautions is he taking to prevent a black market from being created in these books?

Dr. Hill

It is early to give a figure for the number of books sold. The returns are not yet in, although it is known that a number of repeat orders are coming. The estimate for this year remains the same as that which I gave the hon. Member for Dundee, East. On the third point, while one can never be certain that it will not occur, there is a widespread campaign of publicity about the prices. We are taking such steps as we can to prevent these books from being sold at prices different from those shown on the books. We will watch the position very carefully.

Following is the information:

Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics—Lewitt.

Workshop Technology—Chapman.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Textbook of Inorganic Chemistry—

Partington.

Physical Chemistry—Mee.

Economics of Welfare—Pigou.