§ Sir H. Williamsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the statistical evidence on which is based the fundamental assumption in the White Paper on Employment Policy, namely, that a decline in the demand for exported goods precedes and causes the decline in the demand for consumption goods.
§ Sir J. AndersonWhat is assumed in the White Paper is that a decline in the demand for exports, together possibly with an increase in competing imports, has been in the past one of the major causes of increases in unemployment. This is, I suggest, a matter of common knowledge, and no special statistical study is required to demonstrate it. Similar importance is attached, however, in the White Paper to fluctuations in investment. Under both headings the resulting unemployment has usually been mainly concentrated in the industries directly affected by the loss of exports or the decline in investment. Unemployment in industries producing consumer goods follows from fluctuations in other employment though variations in the home demand for consumer goods are usually of smaller dimensions.