§ Mr. Rileyasked the President of the Board of Trade whether it is the policy of the Government to issue import licences only to those firms which were trading before the war either with neutral or allied countries; what is the attitude of the Government to those British firms whose imports before the war were largely confined to Germany; are such firms now entitled to have licences and quotas allotted to them for imports from the neutral and allied countries, as otherwise they would be unable to continue their businesses?
§ Sir A. DuncanWhere the total amount of imports of a particular class of goods to be allowed from any country is small, licences are, as a rule, confined to firms which have previously imported those goods from that country. But there are many classes of goods for which licences to import from Empire countries or from France are granted to firms whose previous imports were wholly or mainly from enemy territory.