Mr. Lloyd-George, who was very cordially received on making his
first appearance as Chancellor, maintained that there was nothing new in this sudden inrush of foreign hops. On the contrary, we were importing less now than we did twenty years ago. The decrease in the area under cultivation was due, first, to improved methods, by which the same quantity of hops was produced with less labour out of a smaller acreage ; and second, to the use of hop substitutes. He therefore recommended the Member for Gravesend to go to his friends the brewers and appeal to them, as a patriotic trade, to use home-grown hops and abandon these pernicious substitutes. Until the Select Committee on the subject had completed their inquiry, discussion of the subject was premature. Mr. Gretton, on behalf of the brewing interest, stated that the hop substitutes employed were a negligible quantity, but he would be prepared to see them abolished. The importation of foreign hops seriously affected the hop-growing industry, which was in a deplorable state, but be admitted that the vagaries of the English seasons made importation necessary.
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