§ 67. Mr. W. Fletcherasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of exports from this country during the 268W three periods, January to June, 1946, July to December, 1946, and January to June, 1947, were made against cancellation of previous debts or other financial arrangements which would make such proportion of exports into unrequited exports.
§ Sir W. Smithersasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the size of our adverse balance on current account for the period January-August, 1947; what was the magnitude of our national drawings on the American and Canadian loans; and if he will give details of the capital transfers in categories, of unrequited exports, payments in respect of the deficit on current account of the sterling area as a whole, other than the United Kingdom, and straightforward net conversion of pounds into dollars.
§ Mr. Dalton, pursuant to his replies [OFFICIAL REPORT, 28th October, 1947, Vol. 443, c. 45 and 30th October, c. 99–100], supplied the following information:
I regret that after careful consideration I find that it is not possible to give a statistical answer to these Questions. Exports from this country are only one part of the total financial transactions between ourselves and other countries. I gave details, on 24th October, of the changes in sterling balances since July, 1946. These are the result of the total of dealings on both sides of the account, and one cannot relate any particular series of transactions, e.g., exports from the United Kingdom, to individual changes in the account as a whole.