asked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in connection with the information recently published concerning the ballot in the cotton industry, he can give any indication as to what extent the merchants who expressed opinions unfavourable to reorganisation were interested in the sale of Japanese, Indian, or other foreign cotton textiles as opposed to the sale of British cotton textiles?

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any information indicating to what extent the London cotton textile merchants who expressed opinions hostile to the Cotton Industry Reorganisation Bill are interested in business in cotton textile goods of British manufacture and cotton textile goods of Empire and foreign manufacture, respectively?

The answer to both questions is in the negative. I have no information as to the opinions expressed by individual merchants in this connection.

Is it possible to get this information, because obviously it will be of great value in assessing the size and the weight of the opposition?

The hon. Gentleman will realise that I was not responsible for the balloting of the merchants, but that I asked the various chambers of commerce for the information and they were responsible for collecting these opinions.

Is it not possible for the Minister to get from the chambers of commerce the source of the opposition?