§ Mr. JOWETTasked the Financial Secretary to the War Office concerning the composition of the newly-constituted Wool Advisory Committee why, having arranged for the separate representation of cloth manufacturers, clothing manufacturers, hosiery manufacturers, flannel manufacturers, spinners, spinners and manufacturers, topmakers, woolcombers, wool merchants, wool importers, and selling brokers by representatives numbering altogether twenty-three members, ho has not arranged for separate representation of these various sections of the wool and textile industries from the labour side as well as from the employing and commercial side of the wool and textile industries, and, particularly, if he will say why he has included no labour representatives having knowledge equivalent to that of employers classed as spinners, manufacturers, topmakers, and woolcombers; and why he had appointed only five labour re- 2062W presentatives on the Committee, as a whole, as compared with twenty-three representatives of the employing and commercial class?
§ Mr. FORSTERThe newly-constituted Wool Advisory Committee is, as its name implies, an Advisory Committee and not an executive one. The constitution of the Committee provides for expert advice on every branch of the trade being at the disposal of the Department, and the five gentlemen who are connected with the industry from the labour side are fully competent to advise the Department on all questions from the point of view of the workers. It should further be noted that in matters concerning production, with which the labour members are primarily concerned, the Department will have the advantage of the assistance of the five Man-Power and Production Committees for the various branches of the industry which are composed of employers and trade unionists in equal numbers, and which are directly represented on this Central Committee.