Captain CLAYasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state whether any entries into the primary registers for British exports of free goods from the ports of London and Liverpool have been checked from 1st June, 1910, to 1st March, 1911, in the Customs Statistical Office; what is the method used in the monthly scrutiny of discovering errors made in the primary registers for articles entered by value only; and, if entries into the primary registers are not checked, how is it possible for errors to be discovered which arise through goods being registered to the wrong country?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSEThe answer to the first paragraph of the question is in the affirmative. There is no intention of abolishing the system of check by the Customs Statistical Office, and consequently the question put in the third paragraph does not arise. As regards the second paragraph I am afraid that it is not possible, within the limits of an answer to a question, to explain in detail the various methods of check actually employed.