asked the Secretary to the Treasury how many of the 300,000 copies of the "Battle of Output" 1947, distributed by Government agencies have actually been sold to members of the public; and how does the sale of this production compare with the sale of previous Government publications such as "Bomber Command", the "Battle of Britain". etc.

Only 176,000 of the "Battle of Output" were distributed. Of those approximately 156,000 have been sold to members of the public. The sales of "Bomber Command" were 1,350,000 and of the "Battle of Britain" 4¼ million copies.

Would not my right hon. Friend agree that the figures which he has given show very definitely the justification of the criticism which has been made of the very poor way in which this document was presented for public consumption?

I do not agree. We cannot compare a war document, dealing with the war and sold during the war, with an economic document which, much as we may regret it, has only a limited appeal.

Does my right hon. Friend not appreciate that it was because it was put out in a dull way that it had only a limited appeal and could not begin to compete even with one publication issued during the war?