I beg to second the Motion.

I do so, perhaps, from entirely different motives from those which have prompted my hon. Friend the Member for the Drake Division of Plymouth (Sir A. S. Benn) in moving it, and in order that there may be no suggestion in this House that there is a monopoly in any one party of the desire to advance what may make for the prosperity of this country. While there is no monopoly in patriotism, neither is there any monopoly in the desire for the well-being of the whole of this country, and I hope it is not to be taken as evidence of the interest of the party opposite that the benches there have been so sparsely attended this evening to support my hon. Friend. I am supporting this Motion in the belief that everyone recognises to-day that anything that can be done to exploit the possibilities of new markets should be done, and if it is to be done by any one political organisation, no matter how good the intentions may be or how well conducted the inquiry may be, whatever the result, it will be tainted and there will be suspicion attached to it. Therefore, when the proposal is made that there shall be an investigation devoid of any kind of political bias or political colour, I, as a free trader, stand here and co-operate In that proposal. While my hon. Friend has made the suggestion that the industries of this country can be traced, I am not going to be diverted from what, perhaps, is the proper spirit in seconding a non-political Motion to state what, in my opinion, has contributed to the great success and the material well-being of this country. Otherwise, we might immediately be at cross purposes in reference to that which brought the results about.

We are faced to-day with a desire on every hand for more work. It is useless to make suggestions for insurance in connection with every kind of employment, and with all the risks associated with industry, unless, at the same time, we devote our energies towards the extension of the means for employment as well as covering the risks of that employment. Thus, to-day I welcome any kind of inquiry which will go forward with the imprimatur of this House, without a bias, but with the one desire to see if it be possible to recommend to this House steps that may be taken for the extension of confidence, the development of credits, and the furtherance of co-operation between ail those engaged in industry. There are three things needed in connection with industry to-day. We must have cheap raw materials, we must have the most efficient labour, and we must have the most economical transport connected with the things that we produce. If we have those things, it will be idle to suggest that it is in the interests of any one class or section concerned with industry to promote it. It is in the interests of all. We are all mutually dependent one upon the other. We have been taunted in times past with being a nation of shopkeepers, but we are not a nation of shopkeepers simply selling goods one to the other. We are a nation of shopkeepers for supplying goods to the world, and we can continue in that proud position if we are alert, in the other parts of the world, for the development of markets which are available to us, if we can only extend in peace what we extended in war.

During the War, we went to the help of nations and advanced huge sums of money that we shall never see again. If we advanced those huge sums of money in reference to that which was war, surely we can be advancing money in reference to that which is industry, for the building up of peace as well as for destruction in war, and I am hopeful that the inquiry that may be instituted may show that it will be possible for international credits to be extended in connection with those who want our goods, because we have to remember that there are six years of arrears in reference to manufactures which we can produce better than any other nation in the world, but the people are unable to buy them. If we could extend the credits, give them sufficient time, lay hold of those means of inducing them to believe that they can obtain the goods and pay afterwards, with the credit of the manufacturers who produce the goods, then we shall be advancing some kind of result which, without Government support, cannot possibly be expected. Time was when we in this country supplied the whole civilised world with power. Boulton and Watt established in this country that which every civilised monarch in the world in those days came here to see. Foreign monarchs visited the Soho works, Birmingham, for the purpose of finding out what was going to revolutionise industry by the cheap mechanical power then obtainable. Later on, we developed, in connection with our mills and in our looms, further processes, which also enabled us to supply the world with that which they could not produce themselves. To-day, one living man, Sir Charles Parsons, has supplied, and is supplying, the world with the cheapest kind of mechanical power known since the day of James Watt. We are doing that, and we are never afraid of competition in reference to that which relates to the engineering and the mechanical skill of this country, and while that is so, it certainly means that the markets that are available can be supplied by our men to-day exactly as they were supplied in the past.

While the time has gone by when they needed to come to us for all these things, we have built up rivals by sending our own skilled men into those countries which produce to-day that which they previously bought from us. We have cultivated our own rivals, we have educated the world industrially, we have educated the whole civilised world mechanically, and, while that has been done, it is idle to-day to say that we have no energy available for going further afield and finding what else may be done for the benefit of those who to-day have doles rather than ample wages. I am an engineer, and I am proud of the race to which I belong, proud of the possibilities that English engineering has always shown. We have the best mechanics in the whole world. I know America well, I have been there regularly for the last 27 years, so that I know something of that about which I am talking. The mechanics of America cannot touch the mechanics of England. The skill we have cannot be found there. They are too mechanically trained; they are too much dragooned; they are too much machined, and too much limited in what they do. With the possibilities we have here, I ask the House not to look upon this as a question which belongs to this side, or that side, or the other side. It belongs to us all, and we have got to go out to meet it.

While it may seem strange to some of my hon. Friends that I should be seconding a Motion which is submitted by one who has made himself distinguished in a matter on which I shall fight him as long as I live, he is not proposing it from the point of view of the old standpoints and old errors which have so blinded his eyes in the past, and I am seconding it in the belief that all that has been proposed in the past by one party or another will fail if it is to be linked up to the prejudices, to the passions, to the bitter disappointments of one side and the other, due to the disbelief each has in the motives of the other. Therefore, I am asking that we shall, for once, divest ourseves of this prejudice of one side against the other, and that we shall all co-operate, if possible, to produce a result that will bring employment. It is no use to talk about more insurance; it is no use to advocate greater security, unless we are going to fill our workshops with new work. During the War, it was my good fortune, associated with my fellow-engineers, to ask them, and to obtain from them, the greatest co-operation in producing the cheapest and the best kind of munitions possible, by allowing only the skilled men to do skilled work, and not waste their time upon doing small and inferior work. We diluted the labour, with the good-will of all the unions concerned. On the ships on the Tyne—I was Commissioner for the Tyne, so I know what I am talking about—the lines of demarcation were broken down between the coppersmith, the boilermaker and the fitter. They were all broken down during the War, and what I am now suggesting is that if we could do that in War time, if we could make a rapid output, if now similar facilities were offered, without breaking down trade union rules or trade union skill—I am not going to belittle the trade that took me many years to acquire, and to believe that anyone can step in and do the job that took me years of experience to acquire, but there is some work I did in the first week of my apprenticeship that I could do as well as at the end of the seven years.

That being so, I am asking that there should be the same broad spirit, the same wide vision, the same open mind, the same trustworthiness, the same belief in that which is industrially manufactured, as there was in connection with that which was nationally manufactured. Break down the prejudices between the employer and the employed. Let the Employers' Federation and the men's union recognise that it is a common interest they are serving, and that there is no one thing that affects one side that does not equally affect the other. Let that be broken down, and it will be better than all the Resolutions this House can carry, and will make for greater prosperity than we have yet seen. Believing we need these markets, knowing there are markets to be obtained, knowing, too, that any inquiry by one body of men would not bring confidence, I am asking the House to throw prejudice on one side, to throw away the old antagonisms which one party may have towards the other, and let us all come together, and ask the Government to give us a lead in this, that there may be an impartial inquiry, so that it cannot be challenged because of the manner in which it has been carried out.