Mr. De la Bèreasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the exceptional allotment of paper for administration to Government Departments and the Ministry of Information, he will now make a more generous allocation to the publishing industry to enable that industry to supply more adequately the universal demand for British books, with special regard to the demand from overseas for British authors and British books.
§ Sir S. CrippsI am glad to say that, as a result of an improvement in paper supplies and a reduction in Government requirements, I have been able to arrange 723W for an increase in publishers' quotas from 50 per cent. to 65 per cent. of pre-war usage as from the end of this month. I have asked the Publishers' Association to urge their members to use as much of this increase as possible for expanding their exports.