asked the President of the Board of Trade what representations he is making to the Government of the U.S.A. for the removal of the partial restrictions imposed on the use of natural rubber in that country with a view to securing more employment and better wage conditions in our Colonies and more dollar exchange for the Empire.

This matter is being raised at the current session of the Rubber Study Group in Paris.

Is it not a fact that this synthetic rubber industry is quite uneconomic? Is not one of its objects to try to keep down the price of natural rubber, often below the cost of production in the Colonies?

I think that that is a question which ought to be addressed to the Government of the United States of America, and not to this one.