Mr. GRAHAM:

I am sure that the Committee will not expect to-night a long reply to the discussion which has taken place, not because I do not realise the importance of the points put forward in this Debate, but because this is a subject upon which the House already, after a very full Debate, has recorded its, decision. The Debate which has just taken place falls into two parts. The first part, which was raised by the hon. and gallant Member for Chatham (Lieut.-Colonel Moore-Brabazon), regarding the position of a particular industry, the manufacture of cinematograph films; and the second dealt with the McKenna Duties as a whole and was raised by the hon. Member for Moseley (Mr. Hannon) and the hon. Member for Clay Cross (Mr. Duncan). With regard to the manufacture of cinematograph films in this country, it would be wrong on my part to suggest at the moment that I had any detailed information which I could give in reply to the hon. and gallant Member, but the broad facts as regards the importing of cinematograph films into this country under the McKenna Duties is that after the duties were imposed, taking the first year for which we have complete returns, the yield was approximately £184,000, and that rose in the last year for which we have complete returns—1923–24, I think—to about £289,000.

So it is clear that cinematograph films were coming into this country in increasing numbers, and I should think to some extent, on the mere fiscal aspect alone, that there was not that complete protection to those articles which is sometimes derived from the mere existence of what becomes a protective duty. But we have never disputed that in the repeal of these duties there might be some temporary dislocation. The Chancellor of the exchequer and I endeavoured to make that quite plain when the larger discussion took place, but I should think that in a small industry of this kind the dislocation cannot be large, and in any case the practical reply to-night is that we could not possibly exempt from the operation of the repeal the manufacture of cinematograph films without opening the door to other exemptions, which might amount in the long rim to a continuance of the duties themselves. The duties have either got to go altogether or to remain altogether. There cannot be any picking out of particular items without a complete upheaval of an important principle in fiscal practice.

On the point raised by the hon. Member for Clay Cross, the main suggestion was that some notice should have been given to the traders in this country, and that perhaps over a period of three years, no doubt in three stages, these duties might be repealed. On that point we took a great deal of advice from the trades affected at the time, and I have no hesitation in telling the Committee that the trades themselves made it perfectly plain that if the duties were to disappear they had better disappear as quickly as possible in order to get rid of the uncertainty and doubt which would remain if this was a suspended operation over a certain term of years.