De imports of this tinned meat from the Argentine, who have always been our biggest suppliers, were in August this year only one-seventh of what they were for the corresponding month last year. Marshall Aid, therefore, has not helped in restoring the purchases from that source. If we take dried beans of various kinds—haricot, butter, and so on—we find, once again, that during the first eight months of this year we imported less than one-sixth of what we imported in the corresponding period last year. As far as I can make out, there is still none coming from the United States, Canada, or the Argentine, from where the bulk came last year. The August rate of import is half what it was for the corresponding period last year.

Dried eggs, again, show a shrinking import rate. During the first eight months of this year we imported less than one-quarter of what we did in the corresponding period of 1947. Even the supplies from Australia, a non-dollar area, have been reduced this year, and I would ask the hon. Lady the reason for that. The monthly rate for August, 1948, is one-eighth of the monthly rate for August, 1947. There, again, we have a picture of a continuing drop in the rate of imports. Far from Marshall Aid gradually building up our supplies, our imports seem to be shrinking. Therefore, the prospect for the future is not very rosy.

With regard to canned salmon, as far as I can make out, we imported none at all in June or August this year, and only 14 cwt. in July. Does the hon. Lady tell the House that it is not the intention of the Ministry of Food to import any more canned salmon at all, or can she give us some idea when the imports will be resumed? I am putting these facts before the House because we have yet to appreciate in our own homes and in our constituencies just what the cumulative effect of these shortages is going to be.

Here I wish to pay a tribute to the Ministry of Food for the steps they have taken, where possible, to increase imports of other foods which are very useful to us. As far as I can make out, we imported 10 times as many sardines in the first eight months of this year as in the corresponding period last year, and the monthly rate is much higher. I find sardines one of the most elusive fishes of all, and I would ask the hon. Lady to tell us where this larger supply has disappeared to, because none of these sardines have found their way into my grocer's shop.

With regard to olive oil, I want to thank the hon. Lady for the increase in imports, which have helped enormously, but I want to ask her, in view of the high cost, whether it would be possible to import more of the other vegetable oils, most of which are cheaper to buy. In the matter of currants, we are now importing twice as many as in the first eight months of last year, and actually more than before the war. They will be very helpful for Christmas. Then again, the Ministry have treated us very generously with regard to oranges, and our supplies are actually higher than they were prewar. In view of the fact that our largest supplier is Palestine, I would like to know whether the hon. Lady can tell' us what the prospects are likely to be of continuing these imports.

I am far from saying that the Ministry have been sitting down on the job, I think they have tried to supplement this shortage of protein goods in as many ways as they can. Nor am I even blaming the Chancellor of the exchequer, but I do think the country should be aware of this simple fact. I think it comes as a surprise to many of us that Marshall Aid, far from giving us a rise in our standard of living—which no one expected, of course—apparently is going to stabilise it, not at the 1947 level, but at a new level which is even lower than that which obtained immediately before the dollar crisis hit this country. Apparently all it has done is to maintain us at a dollar crisis level. That was the situation before the rearmament programme was announced in this House—a programme which will divert further production from exports and reduce our resources and, therefore, will make our purchasing problem still more difficult. We can, therefore, assume that rearmament will mean even greater stringencies. I wonder whether the United States of America realise that the level at which Marshall Aid has stabilised our consumption in this country is one which involves us in continuing hardship of an even greater degree.

Finally, I should like the hon. Lady to ask the Minister of Food at the beginning of next Session to make an early and full statement to the House on the whole of the food situation prospects in the coming winter months. Will he come to us and say quite frankly what food imports he intends to make, and whether he can give us some hope that the recovery of Europe in the near future will enable the shortages of foods from dollar areas to be balanced by increased supplies from elsewhere.