16 MAY 1925, Page 2

On Monday it was the turn of the silk duties.

Mr. Bromfield and Mr. Mackinder, Labour members, con- tended that the duties would drive prices up and by depressing a growing trade cause unemployment. Italian competition in artificial silk, as well as in many other trades, had become so keen that the least addition to the cost of production in England might turn the market abroad decisively against the British exporter. Mr. Rtmeiman in a most informing speech showed that arti- ficial silk could not reasonably be described as a luxury. It was part of the dress of almost every woman. The difference in price between cotton cloth and cloth woven from artificial silk (which is made from wood pulp) was only id. a yard. * *