§ Mr. PATRICK WHITEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether Messrs. Plunkett and Company, Dublin, having applied to the Customs and Excise for licences to ship malt on 31st January and the 8th and 13th February, and having received no acknowledgment of their application, those licences will be immediately granted for the shipment of such malt as has already left Dublin en route for its destination?
Mr. WHITEalso asked the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state why the licences applied for by Messrs. Plunkett and Company, of Dublin, for the shipment of roasted crystal malt from the port of Glasgow have not been issued, and why no attention has been paid to repeated applications; and if he is aware that the malt has been lying at Glasgow since the end of January and that it is a perishable article?
§ Mr. ACLANDThe applications made by Messrs Plunkett and Company, of Dublin, for the grant of licences authorising the shipment of roasted crystal malt from the Port of Glasgow have been under consideration by the War Trade Department and some letters written in reference thereto have been forwarded to that Department. The statement that no attention has been paid to these letters is not correct, but the position with regard to1174W the prohibition affecting malt has rendered necessary some inquiries by the Department upon the question as to whether in existing circumstances the export of malt can be sanctioned. The Department received a reply to these inquiries on Friday last, and in the special circumstances affecting the malt referred to in these questions as lying at Glasgow the issue of three licences for the export of the malt was authorised on that day. The licences have since been issued.