Mr Michael Brothers: 88. (for Mr. THORNE) asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will now consider the advisability of taking action in getting the employers engaged in the woollen and worsted trade in the various parts of Yorkshire to meet together with a view to changing the method of organisation in that industry, in accordance with the recommendations made by two commissions which inquired into this...
Mr Michael Brothers: The right hon. Member for Hendon (Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister) presented a picture of the conditions in Lancashire. He hung the picture in the shadow and only showed us the landmarks. He did not reveal the whole landscape. I listened to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Darwen (Sir H. Samuel), as I always do, with great interest, but I disagree with him in the wisdom of this discussion. Up...
Mr Michael Brothers: Do questions of this nature tend to improve the trade relations between India and this country?
Mr Michael Brothers: Is this in respect of weaving only, or do the figures include both spinning and weaving?
Mr Michael Brothers: 15. asked the Minister of Labour the number of women and girls disqualified for the receipt of unemployment benefit, during the period 23rd September, 1929, to October, 1930, for refusing to accept employment as domestic servants, and what number were married women?
Mr Michael Brothers: 30. asked the Home Secretary if he will refer to the departmental committee appointed to inquire and report on proposals for extending or modifying the schedule of industrial diseases, under the Workmen's Compensation Act, the excess of respiratory illness amongst male card room workers in cotton mills?
Mr Michael Brothers: It is over two years.
Mr Michael Brothers: I propose to confine my remarks to the cotton report and the situation in Lancashire. I am always pleased to listen to the right hon. Member for Darwen (Sir H. Samuel), because he talks good, sound common sense. He says the trade union representatives have a responsibility in the present circumstances. I quite agree, and they will face that responsibility. They asked for this inquiry, and...
Mr Michael Brothers: I will say no more. What I have said I have said. I can compliment the Cotton Committee on their statement of the conditions that prevail to-day, but I do not see that they offer any constructive proposals, and there are one or two statements that may be misconstrued. They say the evidence supplied to them was that double shifts would improve the trade. I know the Committee does not recommend...
Mr Michael Brothers: I do not want to go into the technical details of spinning. I think it is a much broader question than a technical one. I was somewhat surprised that the committee made no reference to the question of the artificial raising of prices by short-time working at the mills. We have to recognise, whether we like it or not, that about one-third of the trade is specialised spinning, and we might as...
Mr Michael Brothers: 41. asked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department if he is yet in a position to make any announcement regarding a possible Economic Mission to the Far East, and particularly with regard to the representation of cotton interests thereon?
Mr Michael Brothers: 36. asked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department if the Government proposes to send a cotton trade mission to the Far East; who will select representatives; and from what funds will the cost be defrayed?
Mr Michael Brothers: Are you helping us?
Mr Michael Brothers: Will the hon. Member repeat that statement?
Mr Michael Brothers: Or 15 per cent., whichever is the higher.
Mr Michael Brothers: I am glad to have this opportunity of saying a few words about the situation in Lancashire. I agree with 75 per cent. of what was said by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Darwen (Sir H. Samuel), but there is about 25 per cent. of his speech with which I do not agree. With regard to what the right hon. Gentleman said about the cost of producing cotton goods in India and Japan, I would...
Mr Michael Brothers: I am not going to admit that even the employers are stupid—
Mr Michael Brothers: I am not going to admit that the employers are stupid. I believe that the Lancashire employer and the Lancashire operative are quite as intelligent and quite as capable of managing their business as any other employer or operative in this country. The conditions of Lancashire to-day are just part of a world-wide condition. When I heard the hon. Member for Stockport (Mr. Hammersley) asking...
Mr Michael Brothers: Is the right hon. Gentleman preparing any schemes for reducing the number of unemployed in Lancashire?
Mr Michael Brothers: The hon. and gallant Member for Newbury (Brigadier-General Brown) has made, I think, a really good case for the Motion of the hon. Member for East Leyton (Mr. Brockway). I have been in India, and the people of India are a very lovable race. They may be excitable, but so are all non-educated people, taken in the mass. They are not to blame for that. If they are not able to state their case...