asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply whether, in view of the fact that 86 per cent. of the world's supply of raw rubber is produced in the East Indies and Malaya, he is taking steps to establish factories for the manufacture of synthetic rubber, either in this country or the United States of America?

My Noble Friend is fully alive to the necessity of adjusting the supply and consumption of rubber by the extended use of substitutes for natural rubber and other means, and the method suggested will not be lost sight of.