§ Commander BELLAIRSasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department it he can give the value of the imports of foodstuffs, excluding drink and tobacco, for each year since the statistics for the Irish Free State were separated from those of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
Mr. SAMUELThe imports into the United Kingdom in the years 1923–1925 of articles of food and drink, including foodstuffs for animals and excluding alcoholic beverages and tobacco, were valued at £479,246,000 in 1923, at £538,381,000 in 1924, and at £537,370,000 in 1925. The total for 1923 includes the imports from countries outside the British Isles into the Irish Free State during the first quarter of that year, but does not include goods arriving in Great Britain and Northern Ireland during that quarter from Southern Ireland, such movements of goods not being recorded during that period as external trade of the United Kingdom and of the Irish Free State.