asked the President of the Board of Trade the number of retail shops in this country divided into their respective categories, such as grocery and provisions, butchery, boot and shoe, clothing, drapery, &c.?

I regret that I am not in a position to furnish this information, since no official figures are available.

Does not this prove that it is essential to have a census of the retail trades, as there is of coal-mining and industrial undertakings, and will the hon. and gallant Gentleman put a note in a pigeon-hole of the Board of Trade to have it done at the end of this war?

I shall be very glad to do that.