Orders of the Day — Finance Bill. – in the House of Commons am ar 30 Mehefin 1924.
Mr James Hope
, Sheffield Central
I think I must ask the Financial Secretary to the Treasury for a third explanation, in regard to this Clause. On the face of it, it has a auspicious appearance of being directed to favour the importation of German lager beer, and it certainly does make it easier for trade in foreign beers to be carried on in this country. I think we should have some assurance on this point.
Mr. GRAHAM:
This also is a Clause which is rendered necessary by the existence of the Irish Free State. The precise point in this Clause is that under Section 6 of the Revenue Act, 1909, there is a provision that duty-paid beer which has been brewed in the United Kingdom may be deposited in an approved warehouse for export. Section 6 of the Finance Act, 1914, provides, among other things, that when the duty-paid beer brewed in the United Kingdom is deposited in an approved warehouse for export the drawback of duty shall be allowed and paid as if the deposit in the warehouse were the exportation of the beer, instead of being withheld. The short proposal in this case is simply to extend these provisions to beer brewed elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, in order to permit the continuance of the export trade in Irish beer which had grown up in this country before the constitution of the Irish Free State. It is simply the removal of difficulties arising by the existence of the Irish Free State as a separate legislative and administrative entity.
Mr James Hope
, Sheffield Central
If the object be to safeguard the interests of the Irish Free State, and particularly, I suppose, the interests of the stout export trade, why should not the hon. Gentleman say so in the Clause? The words of this Clause apply to beer brewed anywhere, and I suggest that the effect may be to encourage an import and re-export trade, to the detriment of the beer brewed in what used to be the United Kingdom.
Mr. GRAHAM:
I think the short reply to the right hon. Gentleman is that this Clause legalises the concession which I have described, and it is true that it is drawn in general terms applicable to all beer, because it is considered undesirable to confine it to Irish beer, but, in fact, I think, the strict position is that there is little or no trade in bottling beer for export, except in the case of British or Irish beers, so that in practice, I think, the danger which the right hon. Gentleman mentions is hardly likely to arise.
Mr Dennis Herbert
, Watford
I do not see that one can quite be satisfied with this explanation. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the subject to know how much bottled beer may come from Germany, but it does not seem to me that there is any serious reason—and the Financial Secretary has not told us any—why the Irish Free State should not be specified in this Clause. Certainly, I have no doubt that the sense of the Committee would, by an overwhelming Majority, be against giving this privilege to Continental beers. If it be undoubtedly the fact that nothing will be affected by this Clause except Irish beer, I do not think we ought to pass it in this form, and, if I am in order, I should like to move to omit the words "elsewhere than in the United Kingdom," and to insert instead thereof the words "in the the Irish Free State."
Mr Dennis Herbert
, Watford
With a view to the preservation of our rights on the Report stage, I shall formally oppose the Clause. I do not think it is sufficient to get a mere expression of opinion from the Financial Secretary that in practice he does not think the Clause will apply to anything but Irish beer, and I do not think we have yet had any sufficient reason given as an objection to specifying the Irish Free State. I should have thought that it would be the reasonable thing to do to show that we were giving that part of the Empire this particular privilege, which we did not propose to extend to foreign countries on the Continent.
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Sir Cyril Entwistle
, Kingston upon Hull South West