§ 2.41 p.m.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I beg to ask your Lordships' leave to ask a question of His Majesty's Government of which I have given them private notice. The question is: To ask His Majesty's Government, having regard to the very grave shortage of rice in Malaya and to the fact that there is a large surplus of rice estimated at 1,500,000 tons in the adjacent country of Siam, which can be purchased and exported, what steps they are taking to see that Malaya is provided immediately from this surplus rice.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (VISCOUNT HALL)My Lords, the Malayan Union and Singapore 959 Colony have been importing rice from the exportable surplus of Siam to which the noble Viscount refers. The exports from Siam and the imports into Malaya are made in accordance with allocations by the International Emergency Food Council. The rice from Siam is required in many countries and the need in many areas is urgent. Recent exports from Siam however have fallen short of estimates on which allocations to Malaya and other countries were made. In the case of Malaya, that country also received allocations of rice from French Indo-China, Brazil and Australia. Moreover, because of Siam's short fall, Malaya and Singapore have, in addition, received supplies from Burma through the operation of the South East Asia pool. Other supplies are now on the high seas from Brazil and a part of the supplies from Australia has also been received.
I should also add that, under the tripartite rice agreement between the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Siam, all rice for export from Siam is bought by the Siamese Government and resold to various exporting agencies at a fixed price. My noble friend can be assured that His Majesty's Government are doing everything possible to increase supplies of rice from all producing areas. In the case of Siam they have among other things, facilitated the export of consumer goods to that country to encourage the export of rice.
VISCOUNT ELIBANKMy Lords, I wish to thank the noble Viscount for the courtesy of his reply and for the fullness with which he has given it; but I would like to ask him whether it is not a fact that exchange difficulties have arisen in regard to providing the funds for the purchase of this rice. I should also like to ask whether transport difficulties have arisen, because, as I understand it—and I ask the noble Lord whether this is so—there are a great many Army lorries in Malaya which could be sent to transport this rice from Siam to Malaya. I feel that as Malaya is adjacent to Siam, its needs ought to be dealt with more speedily than those of other countries which he has mentioned. I beg to ask those supplementary questions.
§ VISCOUNT HALLMy Lords, the noble Viscount will realize that the greatest diffi- 960 culty in all rice-consuming countries is the world scarcity of rice. I am not suggesting that there are not other difficulties, but if there were a plentiful production and supply, then I think the other difficulties would be very speedily overcome.