§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Prime.Minister if his attention has been called to the considerable rise in the price of American wheat since the failure of the Prime Ministers at the Imperial Conference to obtain any consideration of preference for grain grown in the Empire; and what steps he proposes to take to prevent 501 the increased cost of bread falling upon the poor.
§ MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland)asked the right hon. Gentleman whether he was familiar with the lines—
Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies? Who makes the quartern loaf and Luddites rise?
§ MR. ASQUITH (for Sir H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN)I am familiar with those lines. I am aware that there has been a rise in the price of wheat, though I did not know that it was due to the proceedings of the Imperial Conference. His Majesty's Government are not prepared to regulate the price of food-stuffs or other commodities, but they propose to keep the ports of the United Kingdom open for the free importation of wheat from whatever quarter it may come.
§ Sir HOWARD VINCENTArising out of that Answer, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he is aware that the price of bread is now considerably higher than it was during the time the shilling registration fee was in force and when,£7,000 a day was being received by the public revenue for that registration foe, and, also, whether he is aware that the price of bread is considerably higher now than it was before the preferential door was banged, barred, and bolted?
§ [No Answer was returned.]