§ 58. Mr. W. THORNEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the irritation felt among the working classes at the advance of the price of meat and the public knowledge that, although the growers in New Zealand are selling to the Government at reasonable prices, unreasonable charges are being made to the working classes of England but for which retail butchers are not to blame, and in view of the suspicion in the minds of working-class consumers that his present Advisory Committee are agents of the monopolists and working for their advantage, he is prepared to appoint a committee consisting of one co-operator, one trade unionist, and one retail butcher to report to him on the best manner of disposing of the surplus meat; and whether these will, respectively, represent the Co-operative Wholesale Society, the Food Prices Committee of the Labour party, and the National Federation of Meat Traders' Associations?
§ Mr. PRETYMANI have to refer my hon. Friend to the answers given yesterday to his questions numbered 27 and 28. Representatives of the National Federation of Meat Traders' Associations have already been consulted as to the manner of placing on the market the meat not required for military purposes, and my right hon. Friend is not prepared to appoint a further Committee of the character suggested.