asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will give an assurance that cotton mills which are able to build up a stock of coal this summer will be allowed to keep it during the winter months; and whether employers can make their fuel assessments on the basis that allocated deliveries will not be reduced or withheld for diversion to mills which have not laid in stocks.

In announcing to the House the coal allocation to industry for the summer months on 1st May, I explained that the winter allocations would be based on the assumption that each firm had accumulated a stock sufficient to meet three weeks' winter requirements by the end of October. I also stated that if firms accumulated larger stocks, these would not be taken into account in framing the winter allocations.

Can the right hon. and learned Gentleman give a definite assurance that those firms now able to lay in stocks, even on a small scale, of low grade fuel, will not have their allocations of high grade fuel lessened during the winter ?

I cannot do more than repeat what I have already said twice.

Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that many mills have received nowhere near their allocation of solid fuel?

I am not aware of that. On the whole they have received more because they are putting more to stock than was anticipated.