§ Mr. L. SCOTTasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he is aware that the Crown Agents for the Colonies have entered into direct trading relations with the natives in the West African Colonies as regards the supply of certain implements essential for native agriculture, called machetes, in competition with the British merchants who have hitherto supplied these articles, and if it is with the sanction of His Majesty's Government that this has been done; if preferential rates of freights for export of these articles are accorded to the Crown Agents as compared with the rates that ordinary shippers have to pay; whether he can explain if it was at his request that the Ministry of Munitions granted priority facilities last year and this year for the manufacture of machetes to the order of the Crown Agents, whereas 2547W manufacturers in this country have been unable to execute orders for machetes placed by British merchants as far back as 1915 and supported by priority assistance certificates from the Nigerian Government; and whether it is the policy of His Majesty's Government to continue this system of State trading on privileged terms in competition with private traders?
§ Mr. HEWINSThe question seems to be based on a misapprehension of the facts. The Crown Agents for the Colonies have not entered into any trading relations with West African natives, but have acted as agents for the Governments of Sierra Leone and Nigeria in the following circumstances: Machetes are essential to the natives for agricultural purposes, and the Governors of the Colonies concerned represented to the Secretary of State that the firms from whom they were normally obtained were unable to supply them, and that the situation was serious. The Ministry of Munitions agreed that a certain proportion of the normal number of machetes exported should be permitted to be manufactured, and the Governors undertook the business of distribution. The matter was not brought to the notice of the Colonial Office by the merchants, and it was only after their failure to obtain the machetes that this was undertaken, purely as an emergency measure, by the Governments concerned. The orders were placed through the Crown Agents and the usual freight rates on Government shipments were paid. There was no question of competition with the merchants, but the Colonial Governments took the necessary action, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, to meet the urgent requirements of the situation.