HC Deb 22 February 1921 vol 138 c764
69. Mr. GLANVILLE

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what will be the amount which the Government will pay to the farmers for the difference between 95s. per quarter and the price per quarter already received by the farmers for the 1920 wheat crop; and will this sum be paid out of the cost of bread or out of Imperial taxation?

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY OF FOOD (Sir W. Mitchell-Thomson)

I have been asked to reply. The amount referred to cannot be definitely ascertained until the millers' returns are completed, but a provisional estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture, based upon the quantity of wheat marketed, and upon the prices paid according to returns made under the Corn Returns Act, is approximately £150,000. This amount will be a charge upon the trading accounts of the Royal Commission on Wheat Supplies. It will not increase the price of the loaf.

Lieut.-Colonel GUINNESS

Is it not a fallacy to look on this matter, as the question does, as a cost to the State? Is it not rather a remission of a forced levy which would otherwise have been made on the British farmer for cheap bread?

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