§ Mr. Stokesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why advantage has not been taken of the high tin price which has for some time past been ruling in the United States of America to obtain greatly increased supplies of dollar currency instead of fixing a maximum sterling-price limit at a figure which is low when expressed in terms of the dollar?
Mr. MacDonaldI have been asked to reply. Soon after the outbreak of the war His Majesty's Government decided, as part of their general policy of preventing undue rises in the prices of essential commodities, to fix a maximum price for tin in this country, and to request the Governor of the Straits Settlements to take parallel action in that Colony. It has never been intended that these maximum prices should be maintained indefinitely without regard to the level of prices elsewhere.