Anybody who follows the operations of the motor industry, and I follow them as close as anybody in this House, must realise that the motor industry is improving very much. Its exports are increasing practically every week, and, side by side with that, the imports of motor cycles particularly have almost faded out of existence. In the motor cycle industry we are making the finest motor cycles in the world, and we are exporting them in increasing numbers to countries throughout the world. We are exporting them to Germany and other countries that were at war with us. So great is the demand for them that they are actually being taken over in aero- planes. Our exports of motor cycles, not only to Europe, but practically every country in the world, are increasing greatly. The weak spot in the business is in regard to the motor car, and I admit the abolition of the McKenna Duties, to some extent, will impose hardship on the motor industry. Even so, I say that the position is not without hope, because I believe that the motor car we are making in this country will not only bear comparison with the motor car made in any other country but it is a far better article in every way.

From many points of view it is infinitely cheaper, because of its smaller nominal horse-power and the fact that through the improvements achieved in regard to engines, it develops a far greater level of service than most motor cars. There is very little doubt that the American car which has been imported into this country for the last few years will soon be as dead as Queen Anne, and that the motor car made in this country will take its Place as a better engineering proposition and a much more economical type than cars that have been imported in the past. All the same, I would have preferred that the McKenna Duties on motor vehicles should have been taken off by spreading the reduction over three years. That would have given the motor industry in this country a better opportunity of going on with mass production than is likely to be the case under existing circumstances.

It is very difficult for us on this side of the Committee to take a stand in a case of this kind. I made a few remarks on this subject when the Budget was introduced, and I discovered that my speech was being used in Tory publications as against the Government. I was not against the Government. I voted for the Government. At the same time, I confess that I desired a rather different policy from the one they were pursuing, a policy which would, I think, have been beneficial to the motor industry.

It would have enabled those industries to get better on to their feet, and it would have made a little more employment for the engineers who are now out of work. It might also have prevented many men, or some men, from emigrating to other countries. These matters may seem of small importance in a big Debate of this kind. but it is the little things that make the big things. From that point of view I am sorry that the Duties were abolished at one swoop, believing as I do that a little consideration not only from this side of the House but from the other side as well would have been advantageous. If the whole proposition had been discussed from the business point of view, I am rather inclined to think that the House might have been willing to give more consideration than it did to the ease. Both sides of the House were equally to blame.