§ Mr. John Thomasasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware of the great difficulty experienced in obtaining women's and children's shoes; if the best grades are still being manufactured solely for export; and when does he expect to be able to announce an increase in the quantity of children's and 258W women's shoes for the home market together with a substantial improvement in their quality.
§ Mr. Ellis SmithYes, Sir, I am aware of the difficulties, which are common to all classes of footwear. I am doing all I can to enable production to be increased, and I hope that the steps which have been taken to speed up the return of labour to the footwear industry will shortly begin to produce a general improvement in supplies. Exports of footwear are still limited to what is required to meet the essential needs of certain Empire countries and account for a very small percentage of total production.