§ 69. Captain C. BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Trade, if he is aware that in many Wiltshire villages the grocers have in their shops less than 12 pounds of sugar 'and can obtain no more 1868 although there is a considerable demand for this commodity for jam making and preserving fruit, a large quantity of which will be entirely wasted unless a small amount of sugar can be obtained locally for its preservation; and whether he will permit a temporary additional allowance to be made to the vilage grocers in fruit growing areas for this purpose?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe Sugar Commission has no knowledge of the cases referred to, and there exists no machinery by which the stocks held by retailers at any particular time can be ascertained. All that the Commission can do is to secure that the available supplies shall be distributed to the trade fairly and generally in the same proportions as in 1915. The Commission has made special arrangements for supplies for fruit preserving where this is carried on on a commercial scale, but it is in practice impossible to extend these arrangements to private preservers. The Board of Agriculture is assisting the private preserver in this matter so far as it is possible to do so.
§ Captain BATHURSTIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the bulk of the jam used in this country is not produced on a large commercial scale, and that a large amount of fruit which is generally converted into jam is now being wasted in country districts?
§ Mr. McKENNAThe Board of Agriculture, I understand, is doing its best to deal with the matter.