§ Mr. DEVLINasked the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) whether he is aware that the average price for linen yarn in 1902 was 3s. 11½d. and in 2437W 1907 7s. 11½d., while the average price for flax was 6s. 3d. in 1902 and only 6s. 9d. in 1907; whether he can state the reason why the flax growers did not benefit by the rise in prices in the same proportion as the spinners; whether he has any official information showing that through the agency of the Flax Supply Association, or of a combination working in sympathy with them, the flax growers in Ulster are deprived of an open market and compelled to accept a standard price arranged by the agents of the association or the combination; and whether it is proposed to take any official action to prevent the establishment of the American trust system in connection with the linen industry of the North of Ireland?
§ Mr. T. W. RUSSELLThe Department have no official information which would enable them to test the accuracy of the figures given with regard to yarns. In the case of flax the prices furnished to the Department gave an average for 1902 of Gs. 5d. per stone, and in 1907 of 7s. 0½d. per stone. As regards the alleged combination among buyers of Irish flax, I can only repeat what I said in answer to a previous question by the hon. Member on 2nd March last, that complaints from flax growers alleging the existence of an arrangement of the nature referred to have been received by the Department, but the Department have no record of any specific instance of such an arrangement. I am fully alive to the fact that the condition of the flax-growing industry in Ireland is not satisfactory, and I propose to appoint a Departmental Committee to inquire fully into the whole question at the earliest practicable date.