IN EVENT OF EMERGENCY

Evening Star, Issue 22974, 3 June 1938, Page 9

IN EVENT OF EMERGENCY

BRITAIN'S ESSENTIAL COMMODITIES PROVISION FOR PURCHASE AND STORAGE (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyrignt "rTJGBY, June 2. (Received June 3, at 1 p.m.) , To-day’s business in the House of Comons was the Essential Commodities Reserves Bill, conferring important new powers on the Board of Trade and giving retrospective authority for the purchases already made by the Government of wheat and whale oil for storage against a national emergency. In moving the second reading, Mr Oliver Stanley said there was no dispute as to tho desirability of the Government being in a position to accumulate stocks of essential commodities for use in a possible emergency. Tho service departments vyere already entitled to bear upon their votes the accumulation of reserves of petroleum or other minerals for the use of the services, and the Bill gave similar privileges to the Board of Trade with respect to commodities for tho civil population. Food storage was essentially a defence question, and as such, must, in principle, fall within the functions of Sir Thomas Inskip, but the Board of Trade was obviously more closely in touch with commercial interests and more conversant with the commercial methods which would have to be used in execution of the policy when it had been once decided. The schedule of the Bill provided that commodities which might be declared essential were limited to foodstuffs, forage for animals, fertilisers, and petroleum. Further legislation would he necessary to add to the list. The reason why the Government had decided to confine the Bill to a type of commodities _ absolutely certain to bo required in an emergency was in order to minimise the disturbance which the of these unusual important powers might have upon normal business. Mr Stanley gave the House some details of the transactions already carried out. Ho added that no further purchases of any of these three commodities were at present contemplated. The aim of the food storage policy was precautionary, not preventive, and the proposals of the Bill must be viewed in that perspective. _ It was impossible to make a country independent of outside supplies except for a short period, and tho first line of defence against shortage was to ensure continued command of the sen. SECOND READING PASSED LONDON, June 2. (Received June 3, at 12.35 p.m.) The Commodities Bill passed the second reading without a division.