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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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