Orders of the Day — British Sugar (Subsidy) Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 12 July 1935.

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Photo of Dr Christopher Addison Dr Christopher Addison , Swindon

I beg to move, to leave out from "That", to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof: whilst opposed to An abrupt termination of the subsidy, payable in respect of sugar, this House takes into account the fact that this State assistance, which was intended to benefit agriculture, has been used to strengthen private monopolies and increase their profits and therefore cannot assent to the Second Reading of a Bill which merely continues the subsidy and fails to ensure that it shall be used to the best advantage of the community. I would call the attention of the House to the concluding words of the Under-Secretary. He said that the interest in this debate is not so much in the speech moving the Second Reading, as in what the Opposition might say with regard to an alternative constructive policy. That is a strange admission for a Government to make. The interest is in the ideas which somebody else can supply them. This is another case of the postponement of the long-term policy. We were trying yesterday under much graver conditions to ascertain the policy of the Government with regard to the League of Nations, and we shall be presented with another example of this intellectual drift on Monday when the House will be asked to vote more millions to give the Government another 12 months to make up their minds what to do about beef. Now we are going to give them another 12 months to make up their minds what to do about beet-sugar. At the end of this exhibition of intellectual apathy we are told that the interest of the debate is in what the Opposition may say. We esteem the compliment. At last the Government have recognised that they depend on the Opposition for suggestions. Let us look at this case for a few minutes, and I will imitate the Under-Secretary and not be very long because we discussed this subject at considerable length only a few days ago.

We know that this scheme, for which the party with which I am associated was very largely responsible in its initiation, was due to come to an end a year or so ago. A Committee was appointed to consider what the situation would be when that event occurred and their report has been in our hands a considerable time. I have no doubt that the Ministry of Agriculture was substantially aware of the findings a considerable time before the public was, and the Government had plenty of time to make up their minds what to do about it because the report is very exceptional in one respect. The majority of two out of three of the Committee reported that, on the whole, it was not worth while to continue the subsidy, but they recognised all the risks that might be attendant upon its cessa- tion, and they presented the Government to an unusual degree with a detailed alternative constructive scheme. It will be found in chapter 10 of the report. There is no reason at all, save intellectual apathy, why the Government could not have given consideration to that scheme and made up their mind what they were going to do about it. There has been plenty of time this summer. The India Bill has absorbed the time of the House a great deal, and the Minister and his friends have had lots of time to sit down, although they have not had for very long the assistance of the noble Lord, the Minister Without Portfolio, whose presence here cheers me exceedingly. Perhaps he will do something which years ago he chided me for not doing, and supply the Government without long delay with an alternative policy on beet-sugar.

However, we do recognise, and our Amendment says so, that serious dangers to what has become a very large ingredient in agriculture in some parts of the country would arise from the abrupt cessation of this cultivation. We suggest in our Amendment that the only practical alternative to that abrupt cessation, the dangers of which we recognise to the full, would be to have a provisional period in which to attempt to get away from the unfortunate circumstances which have gathered round this business so that we can have time to turn round and see whether all this subsidy business cannot be eliminated, and to bring the home producer on to the same terms as those who receive Dominion preference. We cannot expect them to be any worse off. The expectation that that might be achieved is founded on the report. It is because of the justification of that experiment for a short time which the report provides that we put down a reasoned Amendment to the Financial Resolution which, unfortunately, was not in Order, but which appears in abbreviated form to-day. With regard to the question of the agricultural labour employed, which was mentioned by the Under-Secretary, I see that the report puts it at 32,000 altogether. It is difficult to disentangle the figures, but that figure is probably near the mark.