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RATING REFORM.
5. The Cabinet had before them a Memorandum by
Railway Freight the Minister of Transport (Paper C.P.-280 (28)) on Relief.
Coal for
Ireland.
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 40 (28). Con- clusion 1(b).)
the subject of Coal for Ireland under the Railway
Freight Relief Scheme. In his Memorandum the
Minister stated that, by existing Customs practice,
coal shipped to Northern Ireland is entered as
"shipped coastwise" while coal shipped to the
Irish Free State is entered as "export"; so that
if this practice were followed, coal for the Irish
Free State would be entitled to the rebates from
railway freights in anticipation of the derating
scheme, while coal for Northern Ireland would not.
There appeared to be no economic grounds for giving
consumers in the Free State advantages not extended
to consumers either in Northern Ireland or in Great
Britain, and it therefore seemed desirable that 11
coal for any part of Ireland should be excluded
from the benefit of the rebate scheme. The Dominions
Office and the Home Office anticipated that no
difficulty would arise from such exclusion. The
Minister of Transport also suggested that coal sent
to the Channel Islands should be excluded from the
benefit of the scheme, and that it would probably
be advisable to find some term other than "coal for
export" to describe the traffic to which the rebate
should be applied.
The Cabinet agreed
That coal exported to Northern Ireland, the Irish Free State and the Channel
Islands should be excluded ́from relief under the Railway Freight Relief Scheme
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