Mr James Reid: May we take it that there will be an early opportunity to debate the proposals in the White Paper? It might be as well to express any views about those or the new Standing Orders when we see them in print.
Mr James Reid: It is plain that this has been a bad day for this Agreement. I have not detected unqualified support in any part of the House except perhaps in the Liberal Party, and even there I doubt if their support is unqualified. There is no doubt that In all other quarters there has been very closely reasoned opposition to some of the provisions in these Agreements—
Mr James Reid: The hon. Member for Monmouth was perhaps as favourable as most in this House, but he made it clear that his objections would make him vote for the Amendment, and I am not surprised. All, however—except, again, perhaps the Liberal Party—must start from this obvious, inescapable fact, that the prosperity and, indeed, the very existence of this nation is in the greatest peril, that a rapid...
Mr James Reid: Does the Minister intend to leave to the decision of the Trades Union Congress whether nurses are to get enough to eat?
Mr James Reid: Does the right hon. Gentleman recollect that, after rationing was introduced, on 24th November he said: We shall make sufficient potatoes available through the chain of distribution to meet the allowance. I am perfectly well able to give that assurance."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th November, 1947; Vol. 444, c. 1747.] Does he now say that those potatoes were or were not made available?
Mr James Reid: May I take it that the assurance given by the Minister in this House has not been honoured?
Mr James Reid: If the right hon. Gentleman is going to give extra bread to any classes, will he remember that it is particularly important that adolescents of all kinds should get it?
Mr James Reid: How does the right hon. Gentleman think that old people can supplement their rations, which only amount to 1,600 calories a day, so as to give them an adequate diet?
Mr James Reid: What proportion of the £5,500,000 is attributable to food as distinct from drink?
Mr James Reid: asked the Minister of Food what was the value of foodstuffs exported during the last three months, for which particulars are available, to dollar countries, non-dollar countries and the sterling area, respectively.
Mr James Reid: Does not the hon. Lady agree that that is rather a large proportion for the non-dollar countries, and that our main object in exporting food, obviously, should be to get dollars?
Mr James Reid: Certainly.
Mr James Reid: Would the hon. Lady place in the Library a note of the particulars of allocations and recommendations, because it is not satisfactory for hon. Members of this House to have to depend on scraps in the Press.
Mr James Reid: Could we be given the details which the Ministry have got?
Mr James Reid: asked the Minister of Food whether the estimates of total requirements and import requirements of food for the United Kingdom for the years 1947–48 to 1950–51, contained in the Stationery Office publication, Committee of European Economic Co-operation, Volume II, have his approval.
Mr James Reid: Does the hon. Lady consider that they are satisfactory and that they will afford us a sufficient quantity if the estimates are fulfilled?
Mr James Reid: There ought to be some discussion about this Order. I would like the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food to tell me whether I am right in my understanding of it. I understand that the purpose of the Order is to make certain, following on a policy which was determined some three years ago, that there should be no subsidy on the flour used in biscuits and that it is the growth of...
Mr James Reid: Fifty-five shillings.
Mr James Reid: If the hon. Lady had come down to the House and said, "I recognise that we are imposing privation on the people but this cannot be helped for the following reasons," we might have had some sympathy with her method of presenting the case. However, she comes down and tries to pretend that the only creatures who are going to suffer are the animals. She must know perfectly well that this is a...
Mr James Reid: Surely, it is as obvious as anything could be. At the present moment we know that the millers cannot get oats to mill because the price does not tempt the farmer to sell it to them. If the Government will readjust the price structure, I have no doubt whatever they could get enough oats into the mills and, if the farms keep the millers—I do not say at full stretch—at least reasonably busy,...
