Major BARNESasked the President of the Board of Trade, with reference to the exemption of certain books from the payment of German reparations duty on import to this country, how many classes of goods there are, other than these scientific or philosophical books, which are exempt from the levy; whether before a parcel representing the value of 5s., on which the amount of reparations collected would be 1s., can be cleared, it necessitates the detention of the parcel and the advising of the recipient, who may be in an inland town, who must fill up and sign various forms in the presence of an Excise official, who may be a considerable distance away, or deputise a forwarding agent to do the same for him, whose charge is usually 5s. for such a clearance; and whether, in order to save time and expense, His Majesty's Government will adopt the procedure of our Allies, such as France, Italy, and Belgium, who receive quarterly from the German Government a lump sum representing the total value of their imports from Germany, instead of collecting petty items as outlined above?
§ Mr. BALDWINThere are no specific articles exempted from the levy except scientific and philosophical periodicals, but there are Orders in force, copies of which I am sending to the hon. and gallant Member, by virtue of which goods, to which certain conditions apply, are exempted. With regard to the second part of the question, I am informed that it is the fact that the arrival of the parcel has to be notified to the recipient, who must fill in the necessary form, but that he is not required to sign it in the58W presence of an officer of Excise. As regards the third part, I would refer the hon. and gallant Member to the reply which I gave to the hon. Members for Whitechapel (Mr. Kiley) and St. George's (Mr. Erskine) on the 13th March.
Major BARNESasked the President of the Board of Trade with regard to German reparations dyes handed over to the Central Importing Agency during the six months ending 31st September, 1921, what was the value of these dyes as fixed by the German authorities; what was the amount which they realised when sold in this country and what was the cost of realisation; whether the gross or the net amount was credited to the German Reparations Funds; and what was the amount of profit, if any, which was made by the agency in question on the transactions involved?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe value of German reparation dyes handed over for sale by the Central Importing Agency during the six months ended 30th September, 1921, as fixed with the German authorities, was 12,297,000 paper marks. I am unable to state what these particular dyes realised or the cost of realisation, but accounts as at 31st March, 1922, will be prepared in the ordinary course and these will be available later. The amount credited to the German Reparation Funds is the delivered value of the dyes. With regard to the last part of the question, I believe that the Central Importing Agency have derived no profit from handling these dyes.