§ 49. Mr. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that there are 60,000 unfilled vacancies in the Birmingham area; that engineering wages of over £13 a week are causing a shortage of school teachers and railway workers; and, since this overfull employment and excessive prosperity is due largely to the protection afforded by the McKenna duties, if he will appoint a committee to consider how far these duties could be reduced and used to obtain more favourable treatment to the 214W Lancashire textile industry where there is both short-time working and unemployment.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftWhilst I do not accept all the implications of the first part of the Question, I can assure my hon. Friend that we shall not overlook any possibility of securing tariff concessions for the textile industries in the negotiations which are to be held at Geneva early next year. I do not think, however, that the appointment of a committee on the line proposed would assist the Government or our negotiators in their efforts to secure such concessions.