asked the Minister of Economic Warfare whether he is satisfied that the increased import of 8,351,708 pounds of copper into Switzerland was not wholly or in part destined for re-export for enemy use?
I am not certain to what period my hon. and gallant Friend refers. According to the Swiss official statistics, an extract from which is given below, imports of copper bars into Switzerland have markedly increased during the first three months of the current year as compared with the first three months of 1939, but exports to greater Germany are by no means abnormal.
| Switzerland—Imports and Exports of Copper. | ||||||||||||
| (Abstracted from the official Swiss Trade Returns.) | ||||||||||||
| Commodity. | Imports. | — | Exports. | |||||||||
| 1938. | 1939. | January-March, 1939. | January-March, 1940. | 1938. | 1939. | January-March, 1939. | January-March, 1940. | |||||
| M. tons. | M. tons. | |||||||||||
| Copper ores, filings and turnings | 1,055 | 1,512 | 42 | 210 | Total exports | … | … | … | 1,363 | 1,139 | 418 | 431 |
| of which to (a) Greater Germany | … | … | … | 527 | 260 | 116 | 121 | |||||
| Copper and copper alloys in bars, pigs, slabs, etc. | 19,377 | 25,088 | 5,808 | 15,147 | Total exports | … | … | … | 155 | 217 | 82 | 11 |
| of which to Greater Germany | 3 | 11 | 11 | — | ||||||||
| Waste, old bell and gun metal | 103 | 241 | 76 | 129 | Total exports | … | … | … | 957 | 535 | 233 | — |
| of which to Greater Germany | 281 | 205 | 55 | — | ||||||||
| Hammered, rolled and drawn—in bars and sheets. | 1,613 | 1,507 | 382 | 234 | Total exports | … | … | … | 6,952 | 5,388 | 1,427 | 1,444 |
| of which to Greater Germany | 145 | 60 | 11 | — | ||||||||
| Wire | 1,475 | 1,531 | 212 | 60 | Total exports | … | … | … | 1,839 | 1,488 | 389 | 784 |
| of which to Greater Germany | 4 | — | — | 300 | ||||||||
| (a) Greater Germany includes Old Reich, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. | ||||||||||||