asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will introduce legislation to prevent the practice by which sweets and material likely to be bought by children are sold containing pictures of an improper character, examples of which have been sent to him by the hon. Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie.

No, Sir.

Is my hon. Friend aware that that is a most unsatisfactory reply? Does he not realise that in Britain today, apart from an economic challenge, we are facing a moral challenge? Is it not morally wrong that commercial enterprise should stoop to the level of including disgusting photographs of semi-naked ladies in kiddies' 2d. packets of bubble gum? Do hon. Members appreciate that schoolboys and girls of the tender age of 7, 8, 9 and 10 are buying this type of material? Will my hon. Friend act to stamp it out immediately?

The distributors of the product which my hon. Friend mentions have already told the Board of Trade that they have withdrawn the pictures he is complaining about—for commercial reasons. In any case, the distribution of obscene material is already prohibited by law, but I doubt very much whether the pictures of which he complains would be considered obscene by any court.

Would not the Minister agree that it is likely that the children who have seen these postcards, as I have, would be much less likely to be upset than was the hon. Gentleman by a young lady at London Airport?