FOOD DEBATE IN COMMONS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25226, 3 July 1947, Page 7

FOOD DEBATE IN COMMONS

Opposition Alleges Mismanagement STRACHEY DENIES CHARGE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 1. A Conservative member, Mr J. S. C. Reid, opening the debate in the House of Commons on the Ministry of Food estimates to-day. accused the Minister of Food (Mr John Strachey) of mismanagement ip food purchases. Mr Reid asked why in the first five months of 1947, millions of dollars had been squandered on fresh fruit, vegetables, and miscellaneous foods from the United States, which the country could do without, when Britain’s balance of payment would not allow her to import breakfast foods from Australia. He askfed whether it was to be the general future principle that the® Minister was not going to buy from the soft currency countries food which at present was beyond the resources of the ordinary housewife,' and whether future offers from the hard currency countries of foods which were or were not staple foods were to be refused. “Do crises always catch this Government unawares?” Mr Reid asked. Mr Strachey, denying mismanagement, said bread rationing was an instance of an unpopular innovation which had served the situation. He added that a three-year -contract with Hungary for the importation into Britain of bacon, eggs, poultry, lard, and sunflower oil had been agreed to in principle. The Government intended to maintain its policy of bulk buying while the world shortages of foodstuffs continued, because it was an absolutely indispensable safeguard to the British people. Operations of Ministry Mr Strachey added that the whole process of rationing by which the essential principle of fair shares for all applied, would be very difficult if rationed foodstuffs did not at one stage pass into the ownership of the Ministry of Food. It would be equally difficult to apply the policy of price stabilisation by means of subsidies on essential foodstuffs if these did not pass through the hands of the Ministry of Food. He added that the real case for bulk buying was that it enabled Britain to use the instrument of long-term contracts. Mr Strachey, referring to the BritishCanadian wheat contract, said: “I'do not want to suggest that we struck a hard bargain with the Canadian farmers, who are our great and faithful suppliers of foodstuffs.” He believed

that the contract was the same as that under which Britain bought 83 per, cent, of the Argentine’s exportable meat surplus. The Argentine price was a reasonable one compared with the prices Britain paid for Australian and New Zealand meat. Mr Strachey said that those who did the bulk buying for Britain very often belonged to long-established merchant firms. H? said that Britain was conducting negotiations for food with Jugoslavia similar to those with Hungary, which should result in appreciable quantities of eggs and bacon becoming available to Britain ih 1948.

The British trade mission’s negotiations in Moscow had fitted in very well with the Marshall plan. “I am perfectly willing to say that there is no food crisis and that there will be no food crisis between now and the next harvest,” said the Minister. “We have stocks of major foodstuffs, which, I believe, are perfectly sufficient to see us through until the fruits of the 1947 northern hemisphere harvest are gathered. I say that there is no need for housewives to feel that they will find it difficult or impossible to obtain the food they need.” No Preferential Treatment

Mr Strachey said that British housewives, With all their difficulties, anyway had the assurance of not only finding staple articles of food in the snops, but all housewives had the assurance of being able to take these articles of food out of the shops. “For the poorer housewives, that is a new assurance,” he added.

Mr Strachey said the Government was determined not to remove difficulties for a few of the housewives, but would remove them when it could remove them for all housewives. The real average food level of 2690 calories a day for Britons was not good enough, but it was a good deal better than the lower income groups received before the war. “Miners get more food than sedentary workers, but there is little difference between the intakes of the different income groups,” he said.

The Ministry bought food at home and abroad for £1,440,000,000 and sold it to the population for £1,127,000.000. “It would be easier for the Ministry to sell this food at a profit, instead of at a loss,” said the Minister. “An amount of £303,000,000 is a subsidy deliberately paid to keep food prices at a point where the poorest housewife gets her share of staple foodstuffs, at any rate as certainly as the rich.”

Dealing with nutrition levels, Mr Strachey said that by the best calculations which could be made, the average number of calories Britons were each receiving a day was between 2880 and 2890. Comparable figures for 1941 were 2360, for 1942 2253, for 1943 2315. “So if the Opposition thinks the present figure means we are starving to death, it follows that we were starving to death a little more quickly under Lord Woolton’s direction as the former Food Minister,” Mr Strachey said.

When foodstuffs returned to plentiful supply, and when the balance between supply and demand at a tolerable price level had been restored, he believed that some functions of food distribution should unhesitatingly be reopened to the full rigours of free competition. Differences with Eire

The Minister said that there had been irksome political differences between Britain and Eire which had blocked obvious mutual economic benefits. Nevertheless, a few weeks ago, Eire, through the British Ministry of Food, had been able to procure a very substantial quantity of Argentine maize. The British Government was glad to act as a buying agent for the Eire Government in that matter, because such a transaction opened up possibilities of a resumption of traditional Irish exports to Britain. Reports of British experts who had been sent to Ireland were being closely studied and it was hoped that negotiations between 4«ae British and Eire Governments would soon begin.

Dealing with the world • outside Europe, Mr Strachey said that the Government’s major project for securing food for Britain outside Europe was the Ground Nut Corporation in East Africa. The project was already serving as a model for similar ones.

.Two powerful corporations were to be established, one of which, under the Ministry of Food, would be called the Overseas Food Corporation, and would be charged with a procurement, ndt only of ground nuts, but of any foodstuffs which lent themselves to largescale mechanised production. He added that there were many possibilities for stimulating food production outside Europe. Java and Sumatra were two of the great food storehouses of the world. Mr Strachey said he believed that within a year or two, the production in these great islands of sugar, tea, oils, and fats could transform the world situation. How tragic it would be if the prospect were wrecked by the outbreak of a new war between the Dutch and the Indonesians. He appealed to Britain’s Dutch friends for patience. If war broke out in Indonesia, it was goodbye to foodstuffs which could go far to transform the world situation. . Mr Walter Elliot (Conservative, Scottish Universities), at the conclusion of Mr Strachey’s speech, said: "We are accustomed to Mr Strachey saying that there is no crisis, and will be no crisis.” Mr Elliot reminded the House that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Dr. Hugh Dalton) on Monday gave the gravest warning, and the fear was that the Chancellor might be forced to restrict the schemes of the Minister of Food. Mr Elliot said: "Dollars are going to run out by Christmas. The gap will not be filled by the potential development of tropical countries.”