§ 26. Mr. BENTHAMasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food if he is aware that, while retail traders cannot get supplies of soap, speculators in the City and foreigners to the trade have bought huge consignments of all sorts of soap and are now offering them at very high prices to retailers generally; whether he is aware that the oils and fats branch of his Department, when acquainted with these facts, intimated that the firms in question were of good repute, though how long they had been engaged in the soap trade was not known; and whether he will make further inquiries in order to prevent soap being made dearer by such profiteering by outsiders?
§ Mr. CLYNESI am aware that difficulties of the nature described have arisen with regard to the distribution and price of soap, and I am considering what action it is desirable to take in order to prevent their recurrence.