Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.
Mr. THOMAS:
During the War, the British Government bought the whole of the wool crop of Australia and New Zealand. They also bought in 1917 the whole of the South African wool crop. They paid, roughly, £100,000,000 for the wool. A Government, supposed to be composed of bad business men; a Government not supposed to know how to conduct business and always supposed to be fleeced on all hands, bought from three of our Dominions £100,000,000 worth of wool. The total administrative expenses for selling the whole of that £100,000,000 of wool came to one-fifth of 1 per cent. This was done by the Government. They bought wholesale the whole crop from our Dominions, amounting to 100,000,000 tons. The first thing they did was to reduce the price of wool to the consumer 3½d. per lb., and then they made a net profit of £66,500,000. Incidentally, they did the very wise thing of then handing back a number of million pounds to the growers of that wool. I do submit that there is not only a precedent but there is a tremendous moral in that. No one can pretend that our Australian, New Zealand and South African farmers were not delighted with the deal. They will tell you they were not only well satisfied but it was a tremendous encouragement to them. No one will deny that it was an advantage to reduce the price of wool 3½d. a lb., and then, in addition, for the Government to make £66,500,000 net profit.