Orders of the Day — Government Bulk Buying

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 26 May 1949.

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Photo of Captain Albert Blackburn Captain Albert Blackburn , Birmingham King's Norton 12:00, 26 May 1949

The hon. Member says it has started already. There are already at least 3,200,000 unemployed in the U.S.A., which is equivalent to a million unemployed in this country. I ask this question which specifically arises out of the speech of the hon. Member for Wednesbury (Mr. S. N. Evans), with whom I was generally in agreement. How can we possibly insulate ourselves in this country against the consequences of a world-wide depression starting in America unless we can have reciprocal bulk purchase contracts throughout the Commonwealth and Empire? Are we to abandon the great advantage open to us in a time of world depression by reason of the fact that we are the greatest importing country in the world? This becomes a tremendous asset because primary producing countries want to sell their goods and we are able to go to those who are our good friends in the Commonwealth and Empire and closely knit to us by ties of sentiment, which matter just as much as economics, and say, "We will buy the whole of your exportable surplus" and we ask them in return to buy our manufactured goods in order to ensure employment for the people of Birmingham and other cities in this country.