Major BARNESasked the Prime Minister if grants and allowances have 1774W been made by Government Departments during the War to industrial and commercial undertakings for the purpose of meeting expenditure on alterations, additions, and repairs to buildings and other constructional work, plant, and machinery, in order to increase production; whether these grants were based on the assumption that there would be a considerable fall in prices after the War; whether, in view of the fact that such fall has not taken place, it is possible to review the grants and allowances; what is the total amount of such grants and allowances; and if he will cause a Return to be made showing the Departments making and the undertakings receiving such grants and allowances, with the amounts in each case?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. I have no doubt that the possibility of a fall in prices, or, perhaps, more exactly, a fall in the value of the undertakings and plant when the special War demand for their products ceased, was one of the factors taken into consideration in fixing the grant or allowance. In each case the amount of the grant was settled by negotiation at the time, and it is not now possible to reopen the contractual arrangements then made. I am unable to say what was the total amount of such grants and allowances, and the compilation of the Return suggested would involve a detailed examination of an immense "number of transactions from the outbreak of War onwards, and I do not think that the result would justify the expenditure of time and labour involved.