§ 106 Mr. W. Shepherdasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will now consider a special allocation of coupons to those who are about to get married.
§ Sir S. CrippsNo, Sir.
§ 111. Mr. Piratinasked the President of the Board of Trade why, in the case of persons employed in the making-up of cloth into clothing in factories exclusively devoted to this purpose and provided with mechanical power, additional clothing coupons are only issued where the number of employees so employed exceeds 10 workers.
§ Sir S. CrippsIn the case of the clothing industry, the Industrial Ten supplement is intended for workers whoseclothing suffers exceptionally heavy wear and tear whilst working under factory conditions. I do not think that it would be practicable to define those conditions except by restricting the issue to establishments where more than 10 are employed.
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§ 122. Sir. P. Macdonaldasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that, following his recent decision to grant 20 extra clothing coupons to each of the 500 employees of Messrs. Baldwin, Limited, King's Dock Tin Plate Works, Swansea, these coupons, instead of being made available to the men individually, were delivered to the secretary of the men's union who deposited them all with the local Co-operative Society which in turn issued vouchers on their shop to the men; whether this procedure was approved by him; and whether he will make a full statement.
§ Sir S. CrippsI regret that I am not yet in a position to make a full statement, as I am having full inquiries made into this incident. I will arrange for a communication to be sent to the hon.and gallant Member as soon as possible. I am informed, however, that the coupon equivalent document to which the hon. and gallant Member refers was in fact offered to private traders before it was accepted by the local Co-operative Society.