DEBATE IN COMMONS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 36, 6 November 1943, Page 5

DEBATE IN COMMONS

Famine Situation In India

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 4. Opening the debate in the House of Commons on the famine in India, Mr. F. W. Pethick Lawrence (Labour) said that the rising prices of food and other commodities were the result of inflation for which the Government of India could be. held responsible. He asked why tiie export of food went on from India when the shadow of famine lay over the land. He suggested that it might be necessary to pay subsidies and introduce rationing. The Secretary for India, Mr. Amery, in reply, said that the Bengal famine was something more than an isolated incident. It was a danger signal to Britain of the long-range measures which were needed. Attention had to be paid to the anxious economic position of India and to the possibility of a world food shortage forecast by the Minister of Food, Lord Woo*ton, and the Vice-President of the United States. . , t , . Mr. Amery again pointed out that there had been a great increase in tho population of India while the production a head had gone down. He reiterated that the problem of supplying food from elsewhere was one of shipping. Efforts had been made to give relief by attracting foodstuffs to Bengal from the eastern provinces, but the rise in prices had been so sharp that the experiment had to be abandoned. Grains were being shipped to India and seemed to be sufficient to see Bengal through to the harvest. The most serious problem now was that of distribution.