§ 47. Mr. W. THORNEasked the Prime Minister whether his attention was drawn to the offer by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food to a deputation of Manchester trade unionists headed by Mr. Albert Purcell, chairman of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council, to place the control and distribution of the national food supply in the bands of organised Labour representatives if willing to undertake the task; that committees of workers in the meat and refrigerated produce trades have already expressed their willingness to undertake the work if the proposition is intended as practical business; and whether, in the event of the National Union of Journeymen Butchers and the Agricultural Labourers' Union for the home-killed meat trades, the Dockers' Union, the National Union of General Workers, and the Notional Union of Dock Labourers for the refrigerated industries, being willing to undertake the work, he is prepared to hand over the control of the home-grown meat supply, the imported meat supply, cold stores and cold storage arrangements, refrigerated transport, and distribution to a committee of the bodies in question?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of FOOD (Mr. Clynes)The statement referred to was first made by me at the Labour Conference at Nottingham and repeated at Manchester. It was made for the purpose of enabling the responsible authorities to formulate an 2086 alternative food policy to that now being followed by the Government and to act on the statement, if it is so desired.