I apologise to the House for rising at this late hour. I do so only because the matter which I wish to raise is one of extreme urgency. It is, in fact, the re- grettable situation which has arisen in connection with the timber supplies of this country. The situation is so serious that, generally speaking, it endangers our housing programme for the next year, and more particularly it threatens widespread unemployment and under employment in my own constituency and elsewhere in the furniture industry.

Let me first deal briefly with the soft wood position. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Health a few days ago issued a most admirable housing programme for this year, 1947. By the end of the year he hopes to build 300,000 new permanent and temporary houses, but unless the present bottleneck in timber is overcome the realisation of those 300,000 houses will not take place. It is estimated by the trade that we shall be something like 147,000 standards of soft wood short next year, which would normally go into building. At the present rate of 1.6 standards per house, we shall be something like 100,000 short of our programme for next year. Further, there are no accumulated stocks or very few stocks of soft wood in this country. Before the war we had something like two million standard imports with one million in reserve. Last year we had approximately only 800,000 standards for all purposes, building, railways, shipbuilding and so on. So, in fact, we are living from hand to mouth and unless we can maintain a steady flow of imports, up to the programme rate of house building, that programme must run down.

Our soft wood supplies before the war produce some rather interesting figures, especially when we compare them with the present imports. Our main suppliers were Finland, Canada, Sweden, and Russia. Finland has dropped to one-quarter of her 1938 supplies to us, Sweden has dropped to one-half, but the most astonishing drop of all is that of Russia, which has dropped to one-fortieth of her 1938 figures. Recently Russia agreed to send us 25,000 standards of soft woods, but up to November last only some 10,000 standards had arrived in this country owing to the normal seasonal freeze-up. Canada, fortunately, has almost regained her 1938 position, and exported to us last year some 360,000 standards. Poland, who supplied us with 100,000 standards in 1938, sent us none last year, and we had none from Latvia, from whom we had 62,000 standards in 1938.

In all, our imports of soft woods are down by over one million standards, and are now only one-third of the 1938 imports. This shortage of soft woods for building purposes affects our housing drive today as seriously as the bottle neck in bricks last year. I suggest to my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary that the same urgency ought to be adopted to cure it.

When we turn to the hard wood position we find it is almost worse, and the same applies to plywood and veneer. This is what vitally affects the staple industry in my constituency—the furniture trade. As the House knows, the present demand for furniture is enormous. Even if we had enough second-hand furniture in this country the present inflated prices make it impossible for most people to buy it. Yet, because of the present shortage of hard woods, this essential furniture industry which employs 120,000 is seriously threatened with unemployment. Some authorities in the industry estimate this will be as high as 15 per cent. within the next month or two. For most workers in the industry—apart from those who will be unemployed—the nationally agreed 44-hour week will probably be reduced to 38 hours, or perhaps 35 hours. The effect on furniture production is going to be startling, I venture to suggest. One furniture factory in my constituency which is designated to turn out 150 dining room suites a week is even now only able to produce some 25 to 30 suites a week. It is highly regrettable that our production of utility furniture, which steadily increased during the past year, has now had this set-back.

The United States of America was our main supply of hard woods before the war, but now we are down to one-tenth of what she gave us in 1938. Russia in 1929 supplied us with £10 million worth of hard wood, but none at all now. Poland, Yugoslavia, and Japan all sent us considerable quantities, and now send none. We know the obvious reasons for this—their own domestic requirements, transport difficulties, and barter problems—but it is impossible to resist the conclusion that political reasons are largely responsible for our failure to recover our sources of supply in Central and Eastern Europe. I believe that the timber is there. I have the evidence which was provided for me during a recent tour I made in Central and South Eastern Europe. I believe there is timber in Sweden which we can get, and not just for coal. I had evidence recently of a Midlands manufacturer who went there in company with an Eire timber merchant. The Eire timber merchant bought a considerable quantity, but, unfortunately, the English manufacturer had an embargo placed upon him since he had no mandate to buy. I understand that there is a considerable amount of African timber going into Denmark. I have a picture from a Danish magazine which shows a number of the kinds of wood which have recently arrived from Africa and South America, and the letterpress says that Danish manufacturers have lacked these during the war. I believe that oak logs can be had in France, and I have a letter from one of my constituents saying he knows of a firm in France which has found large supplies of first-clas oak. There were, I understand, recent deliveries of 20,000 tons of oak from Russia to Belgium, against the last barter of steel.

It is true that the Timber Control have representatives in foreign countries—I believe in as many as forty—but the fact is that they have very largely failed to provide the timber, and that is the grievance of the furniture industry in this country. I believe that a member of the Timber Control has recently gone to Canada with instructions to find timber, and that he has said that "the sky is the limit." Well, all I would say is that in spite of his gambling spirit, I wonder if he will get the timber. Fundamentally, the solution of this problem has lain with Timber Control. In 1943, the Furniture Industry Postwar Reconstruction Committee issued a warning about the possible postwar situation, and in 1944 they referred again to the grave anxiety they felt with regard to the re-availability of timber and other raw materials on which depended the whole future of the industry, the re-employment of labour, and the satisfaction of the urgent needs of the public.

Last September it was made clear by the report of the working party concerned with furniture and the future of the in- dustry, that that future was based on the supply position. What have Timber Control done about this? Last September they cut the allocation to the furniture industry by 25 per cent. Before that, in July, they had the waste allowance withdrawn, and that amounted to about 20 per cent. There was a cut of 20 per cent. in hard wood, and 40 per cent. in soft wood last December, so that it is true to say that there has been a cut of about 60 per cent. in the last six months and on top of this there is delay in honouring the certificates of allocation. I do think it is true that these cuts in such rapid succession give the impression that the policy of Timber Control is makeshift and muddle-headed.

The President of the Board of Trade, and I would say his Parliamentary Secretary, should ask themselves "Are we being properly served by Timber Control as at present constituted?" I would ask how can control consisting of timber merchants and brokers—people representative entirely of private enterprise—be a satisfactory arrangement for this Government? This is a private monopoly which the Government have sponsored. No consumer interests are represented, whether they be manufacturer, builder, or employee. All the timber brought into this country from abroad by Government representatives goes through the hands of Timber Control, who apparently enjoy a rake-off. Recently, under pressure, Timber Control agreed that private manufacturers and others could go abroad and see for themselves if they could find any timber. Any timber found would rightly have to go through Timber Control channels, but only two per cent. would be allowed on such purchases, and the rest of the profit would go to Timber Control.

While the present scarcity continues, it is right that a Government control should continue. But must it be a set-up such as the present? Let us, if necessary, have a control of civil servants, freed from the taint of personal motives, with an advisory committee representative of all parties concerned in timber. I understand that this was promised by the President of the Board of Trade in November last, but has not yet been set up. If we cannot reconstitute the Timber Control we might do even better to consider sending a mis- sion to Russia and the Eastern European countries to investigate the supply position. Also, will the hon. Gentleman indicate any results of the Colonial survey of timber at present being carried out, and will he consider the present policy regarding furniture imports, which I understand are restricted to £6,000,000. This must to some extent prevent foreign suppliers from sending us their timber. Will he give an assurance that this timber crisis is being treated as a matter of grave urgency, because, without timber we cannot build houses, and without furniture we cannot make homes.