§ 3. Brigadier Mackesonasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give a comparative statement as to how the labour force employed in manufacture for export in 1946 compares with 1938; and how the volume of exports in 1946 compares with that of 1938.
§ Sir S. CrippsThe estimated number of insured persons employed in manufacture for export at mid-1946 was 1,286,500. No information about numbers employed on export work was collected before the war, and it is therefore impossible to make an accurate comparison. The figure of 930,000 for mid-1939, which has been published, is only very broadly comparable, as it was compiled by quite a different method; it may be taken as very roughly applicable to 1938. The volume of total exports in 1946 was 99, taking that for 1938 as l00; the corresponding figure for exports of manufactured goods was 111.