§ Sir W. Smithersasked the President of the Board of Trade why since April, 1943, nearly 100,000 pairs of rubber boots were not made available to the public; and the number of pairs collected in the dumps of waste rubber firms by the summer of 1944.
§ Mr. LytteltonIf my hon. Friend will let me have further details, I shall be glad to make inquiries. I am advised, however, that very few indeed of the used rubber boots discarded by the public were repairable without wasting labour and scarce material which could be better used in new production and ordinary repair work. On the second part of the Question, I am informed by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Supply that the records maintained by the Rubber Control of the dumps of waste rubber merchants cover only the tonnage of various classes of waste rubber and not the number of discarded rubber boots in them.