Mr William Woolcock: The Committee will probably expect me to say a word or two on this subject, as I am the only Member who served on the two Committees which have been set up under the Dyestuffs Act, which had the duty placed upon them of advising the President of the Board of Trade on the one side whether or not a licence could be granted, and on the other with regard to the development of the dye-stuffs...
Mr William Woolcock: If you will forgive me telling you exactly how many were granted out of the 5,000, may I tell the Committee that the amount granted is as 3,500,000 lbs. to 2,500,000 lbs. refused. If my hon. Friend would like it in terms of values, roughly, one and a third million pounds sterling have been granted and £500,000 worth only refused. That hardly bears out the impression the Committee has...
Mr William Woolcock: I asked that question myself of a person on whose veracity I can rely and I believe it is untrue.
Mr William Woolcock: Apparently my hon. Friend and I go to sources which are reliable in different ways. The onus of proof in the case of a dyestuff which turns on the quality of the dyestuff is put on and accepted by the British maker.
Mr William Woolcock: That is true, but my hon. Friend did not give us the whole story. He did not tell us, for example, that the consumer accepted in the early days of the Dyestuffs Act exactly the proof that he was placed in an unduly disadvantageous competitive position. The language my hon. Friend read out with such gusto from the official letter he read is identically the language in which that agreement was...
Mr William Woolcock: No, I am not a printer. I know nothing actually about dyeing. All I know is that the Chairman of the Colour Users' Association, and those colour users who represent my hon. Friend and others on the Licensing Com- mittee, accepted that onus of proof. I cannot think for a moment they would have accepted it unless they felt they were in some way able to prove a case of that kind, and in any case...
Mr William Woolcock: Not to my knowledge yet, but if any hon. Member was placed in an unduly disadvantageous position, surely it is he who would bring forward the proof of that, and he would not turn round to someone else to prove that he was placed in such a position.
Mr William Woolcock: Far be it from me to say anything with regard to the Colour Users' Association. I understood the Colour Users' Association pretty thoroughly represented the colour users of the country.
Mr William Woolcock: I should like to say a word as to the composition of the Committee. I do not think any hon. Member present will think for a moment that this is a Committee on which the colour users themselves are in a majority. The Act is criticised from several points of view. It is being criticised by colour users, or a section of them, although the actual administration is in the hands of a Committee...
Mr William Woolcock: I do not carry prices like that in my mind. I am dealing with a few sentences later in the hon. Member's speech, when he said that the British price should come within 20 per cent, of the foreign price. What is 20 per cent, of the foreign price? It is absolutely irrational to suggest for a moment that you can do anything in the way of a tariff, or make any relations between the presnt-day...
Mr William Woolcock: You cannot get a basis on which to put 20 per cent. It is impossible to put it on the present day German price, or the present day English price. What is the position in regard to price? The hon. Member has quoted one case. Perhaps the Committee will allow me to quote another. There is a particular colour, which is called Solway blue black, which the colour users of the country asked the dye...
Mr William Woolcock: My hon. Friend referred to the question of indigo. That is, of course, a point which is bound up entirely with the question of price. He told the House that £84,000 is the difference in price between the German price and the British price on 100 tons. Great Britain has been through the experience of having to fight the Germans in regard to the production of alizarine colours in this country,...
Mr William Woolcock: I only intervene in this Debate because, with the exception of one of the hon. Members for Norfolk, I am the only person in this House who holds a pharmaceutical qualification, and because for some years it was my duty as secretary of the Pharmaceutical Society to administer the Pharmacy Acts of this country and the laws relating to poisons. I have, therefore, had special opportunity for...
Mr William Woolcock: 42. asked how many young persons are now being employed in the evening or at night contrary to the Factory and Workshop Acts but under powers of exemption possessed by the Home Office under the War Emergency Laws; and between what hours are these young persons working, in what occupations, and in what localities?
Mr William Woolcock: (In Court dress) I beg to second the Address in reply to the Gracious Speech from the Throne which has been proposed in such felicitous terms, if he will allow me to say so, by my hon. and gallant Friend at my side (Colonel Peel). I, like him, ask the indulgence of the House, and all the more so because I have to follow him in the brilliant contribution which he has just made. I am fully...
Mr William Woolcock: I have noticed with a great deal of pleasure, and, I must confess, with some degree of comfort, the indulgence which the House extends to anyone who addresses it for the first time, and I ask for that indulgence. There seems to be a general consensus of opinion that there is profiteering at the present time, even if we are unable to define it in any closer language than that used by the...
Mr William Woolcock: asked the Deputy-Minister of Munitions if he is in a position to give the House any information in regard to the reports that oil has been struck in connection with the Government's oil development scheme?