§ Mr. Grovesasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that all applications for yarn to produce sheets and pillow-cases must be made through a new trade group, and on 10th May the group was informed the allocation was 25 tons of cotton yarn; and whether, as this works out at about 28 lbs. of cotton yarn to each exporter, he will consider banning this exportation altogether?
§ Mr. DaltonI presume my hon. Friend refers to the allocation of cotton yarn recently made for the production of cotton sheets and pillow-cases for export and administered by the Household Textiles Export Group on my behalf. Allocations have been made to manufacturers and merchant converters in proportion to their direct and indirect export trade in 1940, and these are, in general, much larger than the figure mentioned in the Question. The manufacturers and merchant converters, however, must in turn divide their allocation between their customers whose share may be very small. I regret I cannot, in present circumstances, increase the total allocation. The goods are subject to export licensing, but some supplies must be made available to Empire and Allied countries for essential needs, and I do not propose, therefore, to ban exports altogether.