§ Mr. D. G. SOMERVILLEasked the President of the Board of Trade if he possesses any recent statistics showing the percentage of exclusively foreign trade carried by British ships, the percentage of inter-imperial trade, and the percentage of Empire-foreign trade; and, if so, what these percentages are and from what sources these statistics are derived?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANIn the case of the United Kingdom and most other countries, the statistics which yield the best estimate of the trade done by ships of different flags are the statistics of the net tonnage of vessels which entered and cleared with cargoes at the ports of a given country in the trade with other countries. From a careful analysis of these figures, in relation to the foreign trade of the countries concerned, it is possible to arrive at a rough estimate of the value of the goods carried by the ships of a given flag. From an estimate which I recently had made on these lines for the year 1931, it would appear that in that year British ships carried about 14 per cent. by value of the trade exclusively between foreign countries, over 90 per cent. of the inter-Imperial trade and about 50 per cent. of the Empire-foreign trade.