We accept this change as another logical step in the rationalisation of this industry. We also accept the change in Cotton Board functions. Although the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade was at pains to say that the Board's functions had not changed, they have changed in a few particulars, namely, the productivity aspect, training and also design. This is quite an historic occasion, because for the first time man- made fibres have been accepted as of as much importance as the elements in the cotton industry.

I ask the Parliamentary Secretary why he has not changed the name of the Board. Why carry on with the name of this Board as the Cotton Board when the circumstances are changing so rapidly? The so-called cotton industry is using more and more man-made fibres. A third of its activities are now concerned with man-made fibres, and that is increasing all the time. If it were not for the man-made fibres supplied to the cotton industry the industry would be in a very parlous state. This shows the success of modern fibres, but it also reflects the decline of the cotton industry as a purely cotton industry. Much of it is due to the import of cheap cotton textiles from overseas.

We must accept that the industry, which has previously been referred to as the cotton industry, is now inextricably bound up with the man-made fibres industry. My memory goes back to the time when Courtaulds began to try to influence Lancashire to buy rayon and use it along with cotton. A lifelong friend of mine was appointed manager of the Arrow Mill and had to do this job for Courtaulds in Lancashire. The difficulties were immense because of prejudice against the new fibres. He even had to go to the length of parcelling up rayon in bales exactly like cotton bales coming from America and had to wrap them in the same kind of hessian in which cotton is delivered before some of those engaged in the Lancashire trade would accept them. We have come a long way since then. There has been at times a struggle for dominance on an organisational basis between elements in the cotton industry and those in the rayon section which in the past has perhaps hindered the integration which we see tonight. It became so acute at one time that Courtaulds set up a Man-Made Fibres Research Institute at Heald Green, and to influence the members of the Cotton Board to use more rayon they allowed them to have the benefit, free, of the research done there.

The Cotton Industry Act, 1959, if it did nothing else, sparked off a whole series of amalgamations. The Parliamentary Secretary said that the numerous trade associations have been concentrated into one or two. The concentration of the industry has gone on, productivity has gone up, amalgamations have taken place on a terrific scale. Large firms with their own research establishments have been going further and further towards the retail trade through a vertical organisation.

At one time we had the Federation of Cotton Spinners, the Yarn Association, and many associations of different sections, rayon spinners, rayon weavers and cotton weavers. They were so numerous that it was about time that this rationalisation took place and they came together and recognised their interdependence. In 1961, when the two research associations came together, the levy on the users of rayon was 11 per cent. The total amount which was apportioned to the combined institutions of cotton and rayon was £245,000, of which £45,000 came from the levy on the rayon users.

The rayon producers who, in my view, have always had their eye on the wellbeing of the industry, partly, of course, for their own ends, have since 1961 contributed £79,000 to the Shirley Institute on the basis of £30,000 as a basic rate plus one-fifth of the levy. I hope that the Parliamentary Secretary will be able to tell us whether Shirley Institute will be able to look forward to this £79,000 in future years. I hope that it will.

I am sure that the rayon producers would not need much persuading to carry on, if it has already been decided that this should lapse, because I am certain that they have the public interest at heart. I had many experiences at the Board of Trade during the Korean War when there were many shortages of one kind and another and Courtaulds, who could very well have put up their prices and exacerbated the price position caused by the Korean War, decided to keep their prices constant. I have a personal admiration for the way in which that firm helped the then Labour Government through their difficulties in the textile sector.

This process of inter-dependence is going on elsewhere; in the wool trade, too. At one time manufacturers in Batley, Morley and Dewsbury, used the waste from all over the world to make first-class fabrics, put together with the skill and craft people possessed in those towns. Now the situation has radically changed; because of the interdependence of one trade on another.

Whereas in the old days it was possible for a merchant to be able to guarantee the fibre content of his commodities, that is no longer possible because hardly anybody in the trade knows the content of the waste, rags or fibres in this trade. That in itself points to what comes next because this interdependence stretches over the wool, silk and cotton industries. I hope that the next Government will in two years' time come forward, when the quinquennial review of the functions of the Cotton Board take place, with some new ideas. It may be an admirable opportunity for the recasting of our whole attitude towards these industries.

Many problems will arise as a result of this Order because large organisations will carry on with their own research. It will be necessary to apply our minds to the situation of the research associations which serve the separate industries. It may happen that there will be a reallocation of their present duties; but to pursue that would be out of order and we can discuss it at a more appropriate time.

Are the Government thinking in terms of a change in the status or name of the Cotton Board? Can the people responsible look forward with confidence to the man made fibres' producers carrying on with their £79,000 subscription to the Shirley Institute, and what thought is being given to the changes which must inevitably come about with the interdependence of each section of industry on another?