§ Mr. Granvilleasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will consider giving priority for export to dollar countries in order to increase the supply of this country's dollar currency and to facilitate our purchases of food supplies and raw materials.
§ Sir S. CrippsI agree that the need to earn more dollars and equivalent currency is vitally important. But for many reasons, I do not regard a general system of priorities as the appropriate means of achieving this end. I have already explained to industrialists and traders that I look to them to take stock of all possibilities open to them to secure an increase in exports to the Western Hemisphere, and the Board of Trade and other Departments concerned are now following this up by initiating more detailed discussions. We must, in addition, work for a still further increase in the total volume of our exports, and the restoration of a system of convertible exchanges throughout the world, to secure the permanent solution of the problem to which the hon. Member refers.