Orders of the Day — Ministry of Food.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 3 March 1942.

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Photo of Mr Clement Davies Mr Clement Davies , Montgomeryshire

I am much obliged to my hon. Friend. It is a tremendous quantity. I believe 700,000 tons of shipping is as much as we could possibly build on the shipping stocks to-day in a whole year's work. That can be saved. Are we therefore to be told that we must continue our present policy until our stocks run down and we know precisely what is happening? Can you foretell the future in that way? Could anyone have foretold that on 7th December the blow would be struck by Japan? Could anyone have realised then the effect that that would have upon supplies to this country? We are cut off already from a possible supply of hundreds of thousands of tons—2,000,000 tons—of vegetable oils which were produced in the East Indies. I do not know the quantity of sugar or the quantity of tea, but they have gone, and other sources of supply must be looked for. I therefore ask the Minister to say that we must preserve our stocks, and if we can preserve them to the extent of 700,000 tons in 12 months by refusing to allow white bread to be made but allowing only wholemeal bread, then the sooner we begin the better. It is admitted in addition that wholemeal bread is more nutritious than the other, and we shall all benefit.

From rationing I want to turn to what I consider is the main principle which ought to guide us. I do not know how the Ministry have managed so well during this winter. The Minister has control over all food brought into this country. He is responsible for purchasing it, he selects it, and he sees that it is shipped to this country, and when it arrives here he is responsible for its distribution. The only mistakes he could make in his calculations are in regard to sinkings. Over imported food he has full control, but that is only part of our supply. The other part is grown in this country, and over that he has no control whatsoever. He can control prices if they come into the market, but as to when the produce shall be taken from the producer and how, he has no control at all. Again I would reiterate my claim that the Minister of Food should be in complete control of food. How otherwise can he possibly see to the needs not only of the Armies but of all the people in this country?

Hitherto, the Minister has lived upon the law of averages, and at any moment that law may let him down. What I should like would be that he should direct the Minister of Agriculture what that Ministry should have produced in this country—so much wheat, so much milk, so much potatoes and so on, going through the whole list, and say to them, "That is my list, and that I must have, otherwise my rationing will go wrong, and I shall not be able to feed the people in the way I want." Thereupon the Minister of Agriculture would direct his war agricultural committees what each county should produce, and they in turn would work in close collaboration with the farmers and see that those goods were produced. I asked for this in 1940 and in 1941, and now, in 1942, the Minister of Agriculture went down to Exeter on Friday and warned us about the grim position facing us with regard to food. He went on to say this: In the summer of this year we shall be consulting with the farmer to direct him what he shall be raising in the year 1943. Will not the Ministry of Food take control now in 1942, so that they may know what will be raised in the spring of 1942 and will have it available in the grim winter of 1942? Why wait until 1943 before these directions come into force? Heaven knows what will be our position in regard to food then.

Finally, I come to distribution. Just as the Ministry has lived on the law of averages with regard to production; so it has lived on the law of averages with regard to distribution. Is it not time that the Ministry had its own scheme for distribution? Whether it should bring it into effect at once is another matter, but it ought to have its plan for distribution. May I give the Committee an instance of what I mean by living on the law of averages? Suppose that you had a small town of 5,000 people in which all the grocers happened to be under 25. That little town might wake up one morning and find itself without a grocer. Fortunately the law of averages has operated, and there are men of perhaps 70 carrying on, but there have been instances of little country shops where the point has been brought home, where the little country shop does everything—it is the post office, it sells groceries, it sells meat, and everything from boot laces to hams—and the men there have been called up. It does not very much matter about the men, but it does matter about the community and the way in which their distribution can be affected. In the meantime, small independent traders are being slowly done to death. They have been living upon hope.