Board of Trade.

Part of Orders of the Day — Class Ii. – in the House of Commons at on 11 May 1922.

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Photo of Mr William Woolcock Mr William Woolcock , Hackney Central

My hon. Friend referred to the question of indigo. That is, of course, a point which is bound up entirely with the question of price. He told the House that £84,000 is the difference in price between the German price and the British price on 100 tons. Great Britain has been through the experience of having to fight the Germans in regard to the production of alizarine colours in this country, and ultimately the German price was broken, and the industry was established here. Our aim in the Development Committee and the Licensing Committee is quite simple. We believe that in the interests of national safety you have to establish a synthetic colour industry here. We believe that that industry has to be established at the lowest possible cost to the colour users who have to use the colours produced by the industry. We believe that if we can have the co-operation of the colour users—we have the co-operation of the majority of them, and it is only a very few, an influential few, I admit, who are at the moment not cooperating—and the sympathetic assistance of this House, we shall ultimately establish in this country a weapon which will not only be a national insurance in time of war, but a commercial insurance for the colour-using industry of this country.