ABSTRACT
The explanatory note to accompany the Supplementary Estimate, designed obviously to win the approval of the House of Commons, described the purpose of the loan as being ‘for the relief of unemployment at home and also for furthering the development of the cotton growing industry and of communications generally’. And during the debate speakers defended the proposal in similar terms: ‘As Lancashire is dependent upon cotton and as we can grow the cotton within the Empire, it is to our obvious advantage to do what we can in that way’, ‘We are bound once again to recur to the policy of a century and a half ago and create our own supply within our own territory’.52
