§ 53. Mr. Blytonasked the President of the Board of Trade under what circumstances an Import Licence No. 43850/7/52, dated 28th March, 1952, was issued for an amount of £152,000 of piping jelly and the balance of this licence, amounting to £50,000, was subsequently changed to sugar mixture of the same composition as fondant, which was on strict import quota; what was the basis of the contracts on which the first licence was issued; what steps were taken at the time of the issue of the licence to check the genuineness of the contract; and what were the imports of piping jelly of the beneficiary of this licence from 7th November, 1951, to 17th March, 1952.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftLicences for the import of piping jelly were issued when 89W my Import Licensing Branch were satisfied that applicants had entered into firm contracts with overseas suppliers before piping jelly was removed from the open general licence on 11th March, 1952. Applicants were asked to submit copies of contracts. The description of the piping jelly on one licence, although not the licence referred to by the hon. Member, was changed at a subsequent date at the request of the trader. This amendment—which allowed a higher sugar content—was in my view an error, although understandable in view of the great difficulty of definition.
Imports of piping jelly were on open general licence between 7th November, 1951, and 11th March, 1952, and only goods in transit on 11th March were admitted in the following six days. I have no information about the imports made by individual traders in that period. No new licences permitting the import of piping jelly from countries outside the sterling area have been issued since the first week of April, 1952.