asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies which of the 18 Caribbean Colonies were visited by the Commonwealth Shipping Committee in connection with their report on West Indian Shipping Services.

The Commonwealth Shipping Committee sits in London, and it is not its practice to make visits abroad. The committee did, however, send a comprehensive questionnaire to the Governments of British Colonies in the Caribbean, and was furnished with the report of a local conference on shipping requirements held at Barbados in July, 1947. Apart from the written material at its disposal, it examined a number of witnesses who had experience of, or were interested in, West Indian trade and shipping.