Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I hope it is not to be all cotton piece-goods. There are other textiles in the United Kingdom as well as cotton.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I agree with the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Ipswich (Mr. Stokes) when he throws compliments and bouquets at the two Ministers. As far as I can see, the impression was given abroad that the British Government were not in the market for strategic materials and the prices dropped. Then some other Minister comes in by the back door and buys these materials much cheaper. I commend that...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I also am interested in the problems of Brazil on account of the linen industry of Northern Ireland, because Brazil used to be one of our best customers. Today, however, when one goes to the Chamber of Commerce and asks about the Brazilian trade, they raise their hands and say, "Don't speak of the dead," because the linen industry in Brazil has been shrinking and shrinking. I was extremely...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: May I ask my right hon. Friend whether it has been pointed out to the United States of America that the production of synthetic rubber there has a most serious effect upon the prices of rubber in Malaya; and whether the increase in the prices of rubber would not be a great defence against Communism and result in the improvement of wages on the rubber plantations?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Is it not a fact that there are conferences at all the large shipbuilding ports—the Clyde, the Tyne, Birkenhead and Belfast—at which the allocation is agreed? Are not those conferences held under the supervision of the Government, and is it not intended to give a fair deal to every shipbuilding port?
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I am sure that the House has been glad to listen to the lecture from the hon. and learned Member for Hornchurch (Mr. Bing). It is always a great pleasure to us to hear the remarks that he makes from time to time about Northern Ireland. The remarks he made tonight remind me of an occasion in our last Parliament when the present Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister sat in opposite...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: When I met the hon. Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone (Mr. Healy) on the plane last Monday coming over here I thought he was up to some mischief. Perhaps it would be more Parliamentary to say that he had a well-considered Parliamentary proposition which he intended to put forward to this Committee. I know that the hon. Gentleman is a republican but I am a monarchist and so are the people...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I can assure the hon. Gentleman that when I and my friends and brothers join the British Army and serve the King under the Union Jack, we look upon it as an honour and are not thinking about political matters at all. So far as we in Northern Ireland are concerned, we are glad to pay our share of the emoluments that will be given to the Royal Family and we wish the Queen a long life and happiness.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: The hon. Lady the Member for Flint, East (Mrs. White), mentioned the linen industry. I spent most of the Whit-week holiday on the problems of this industry, doing my best to help, with the other hon. Gentlemen who represent Northern Ireland constituencies. If I had known that the hon. Lady would have joined us in a deputation, it would have given me the greatest possible pleasure to have seen...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I certainly remember the speech of which the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Montgomery (Mr. C. Davies) has reminded the Committee, and I remember that day's debate very well. But I would turn from the generalities about this levy and speak about a particular industry I know very well. It happens that last week-end the managing director of a new firm came to see me in my constituency and...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: We have been in constant consultation with the Government of Northern Ireland and the various bodies representing the linen industry over there. and we are awaiting the Chancellor's statement later on with great interest.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I am in agreement with the hon. Gentleman the Member for Nelson and Colne (Mr. S. Silverman) with regard to taxation. I am against any form of taxation—P.A.Y.E., Purchase Tax, petrol tax—any tax one likes to mention. But the Chancellor must have some money to keep the country running and also to save the British pound, which he has managed to do during the time that he has been in office....
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: The hon. Gentleman is quite wrong, because I have put down Amendments and—
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: This debate today carries me back to the time when I first entered the House, when I had the honour to be the Member for Blackburn. I can remember many debates, much the same as this, which then took place on the textile situation, in one of which one of the former Members for Nelson and Colne said: "Lancashire is listening to this debate with tears in its eyes," The hon. Member for Bolton,...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: Do not think that people in India have no capital. There are far more millionaires in India today than in this country.
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I can remember that during the slump in 1931, outside a mill in Blackburn, an overall was shown to me by the manager, and he said: "If we got the cotton for nothing we could not manufacture at a price to compete with Japan." I was in India in 1947, and I saw that the people then were terribly short of cloth. It is a custom there—just as we give presents at Christmas time—for Indians to...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I am not the first hon. Member today to have mentioned the D scheme. Several linen manufacturers came to see me the weekend before last to complain about the D scheme. It seems that manufacturers who were making a decent living and keeping their employees occupied were very badly hit when some goods which were not bearing Purchase Tax were taken out of the Utility scheme. I bring this to the...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: asked the Assistant Postmaster-General if he will consider adopting the same hours for the counter work in post offices in the United Kingdom as in Australia, where the hours are identical with those of commerce; and what would be the approximate saving in staff hours at the Post Office public counters if the hours of business at public counters were 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I shall not follow the hon. and gallant Member for Brixton (Lieut.-Colonel Lipton) in this question of the movement of babies. I would only point out that this is not the first baby who has been born in London who has been registered under a different nationality. After all, in India today, or in Persia and many foreign countries, there are plenty of babies born British subjects who are...
Lieut-Colonel Sir Walter Smiles: I wish to ask the hon. Gentleman whether he has made any inquiries in Northern Ireland, because there we have a tremendous lot of private companies. I suggest to him that he get in touch with the Ministry of Commerce in Northern Ireland and ask for some evidence from them. Only last month a complaint was made to me about a business in Lurgan which had passed from the grandfather to the...
