Mr. T. Morrisasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether, ill view of the recent restrictions placed on the export of coal from South Africa, any special steps have been taken to ensure that the principal consumers of South African coal, such as the Kenya and Uganda railways and the various bunkering depots on the trade routes to the Far East, will obtain their supplies from Great Britain?
§ Mr. R. S. HudsonNo special steps were considered necessary, but in the normal course of its duties the Department issued a circular in September last to coal export organisations and to a large number of individual coal exporters in the United Kingdom drawing attention to the probability that the effect of the restriction upon the export of coal from the Union of South Africa would be felt along the East Coast of Africa and east as far as India and Ceylon. The circular was accompanied by statistics showing the volume of coal exported from the Union to various destinations during the last three years.