Mr. DUNDAS WHITEasked the President of the Board of Trade, as regards the imports classified in the Trade Returns as articles wholly or mainly manufactured, if he will say what is regarded as the general definition of articles wholly manufactured and what as the general definition of articles mainly manufactured; and if he can state in general terms what proportions and amounts of the imports during the year 1912 of articles wholly or mainly manufactured were articles wholly manufactured?
Mr. BUXTONNo exact definition has ever been attempted of articles wholly or mainly manufactured for the purposes of the Official Trade Returns. A complete list of the articles included in the group as a whole in 1911 will be found in Volume I. of the Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom for that year (Cd. 6216), and a corresponding list will be included in the issue for 1912, which is now in course of preparation. An attempt was made in Memorandum XII. of the Second Series of Memoranda on British and Foreign Trade and Industry (Cd. 2337) to sub-divide this group into three classes, namely: (a) Articles completely manufactured and ready for consumption; (b) articles manufactured, but requiring to pass through some process of adaptation or combination before entering into consumption; and (c) articles partly manufactured. The lists of articles included in each class will be found in the Memorandum in question. Sufficient details of the imports into the United Kingdom in 1912 are not yet available to enable a corresponding calculation to be applied thereto, but the imports into the United Kingdom of articles wholly or mainly manufactured in 1911 were divisible approximately, as follows:—
Class (a) … … 60.3 million £s. Class (b) … … 65.2 million £s. Class (c) … … 40.0 million £s. Total … … 165.5 million £s.