§ 7. Sir JOHN SPEARasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware that some bakers and confectioners had bought sufficient flour to supply their requirements until Lady Day next before the Order prohibiting the use of such flour after the 1st January next was issued; and will he, in such cases, allow the use of such flour until exhausted?
§ Mr. PRETYMANThe information available to me does not confirm the suggestion that bakers have stored on their own premises four months' supply of flour. If they have bought for forward delivery, it is to be noted that the customary grades of flour will no longer be made. Further, I understand that the present custom of the trade limits forward sales to twenty-one days' deliveries.
§ Mr. W. THORNEIs it possible to get a return as to the storage of the stock they have in hand?
§ Mr. PRETYMANWe have power to do that. I will consider whether it is necessary.
§ 12 and 15. Captain C. BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Trade (1) whether he realises that the effect of the Flour Milling Order will be that the millers, by desisting from taking out. the finer grades of flour formerly used for confectionery, will be able still to supply the bakers with flour quite as white as that supplied heretofore provided that they use no English varieties of wheat in their mixtures; whether, in order not to place any discount upon English wheat and its production, and seeing that the percentage system was tried and failed in France, he will consider the desirability of adopting a colour standard for bread as is now employed in that country; and (2) whether, seeing that under the recently issued Flour Order the authorised percentage in the case of No. I Manitoba wheat selling at 10s. per quarter above English wheat in consequence of its dryness, thinness of skin, and proportion of gluten, and choice white Karachi with 6 to 7 per cent. less moisture than English wheat are fixed at seventy-six, while English wheat with its thick skin producing more bran and an excess of moisture is fixed at the same percentage, he will consider the desirability of altering the latter to seventy so as not to cause English wheat to be eschewed by millers under existing circumstances altogether?
§ Mr. PRETYMANThe scale of percentages in the Milling Order was fixed after consultation with milling experts. The scale does not preclude control by means of a colour test. The hon. and gallant Member is aware that the results obtained by the application of a fixed percentage of extraction, such as is prescribed in France, are not the same as those obtained by the use of a scale of percentages varying with the description of wheat milled. I anticipate that the flour to be milled from to-day onwards will be whiter than many people expect.
§ Captain BATHURSTDoes my hon. Friend realise that this will deter millers very largely from using English wheat in preference to Manitoba and other wheats?
§ Mr. PRETYMANThe present price does not bear out that interpretation.
§ 14. Captain BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Trade why, in the schedule to the Flour Order, Nos. 1, 8 2, and 3, Manitoba wheats are mentioned, while Nos. 4, 5, and 6 Manitobas, also used by British millers, are not referred to; also whether, in fixing the percentages, he has considered the case of garlicky wheats, such as are found in North Gloucestershire, and which the new Order seems likely to render unmarketable except as cattle food?
§ Mr. PRETYMANThe report of the expert Committee which dealt with the scale of percentages to be required under the new Milling Order related to the classes of wheat practically available at the time at which it was made. I expect to supplement the scale at an early date by the inclusion of other descriptions of wheat.