§ Mr. HASLAMasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his atten- 1994W tion has been called to a statement reported to have been made in the German Reichstag Committee for Economics by the Secretary of State to the effect that the improvement in the German home market was best shown by the fact that the number of unemployed persons had, since August, 1920, fallen from 400,000 to 360,000, and to the statement that the number of miners at work between the middle of 1919 and the end of 1920 had increased by 220,000; and that the output of the coalmines had increased from 9,oSO,000 tons per month to 12,000,000 tons between the above dates while the output of brown coal in April, 1921, was 10,500,000 tons as compared with 7,300,000 tone before the War; and if he has any means of ascertaining whether the above statistics are accurately reported?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe figures mentioned in. the question appear to be correctly reproduced from reports in the German daily Press. Official German reports show that the numbers in receipt of the Government unemployment donation were those given in the question for the total of persons unemployed. The numbers employed at coalmines in Prussia increased, between the second quarter of 1919 and the last quarter of 1920, according to official returns, by nearly 170,000 in the case of hard coalmines and by nearly 40,000 in the case of brown coalmines. The output of coal in Germany is reported to have increased as stated in the question, and the output of brown coal in April, 1921, is reported officially as 10,300,000 tons, the average monthly output in 1913 having been 7,300,000 tons (metric).