HC Deb 17 February 1930 vol 235 cc924-5
57. Sir AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware that the Members of Parliament for Birmingham have been requested by an officer of his Department to support by a communication, to be published in the local Press, the effort of the Ministry to focus the attention of the people move effectively on the superiority of home-killed beef, when the grading of that beef is supervised by the Government, by holding a national-mark week for beef in Birmingham; and whether, as support of the national-mark scheme is held by the Government to be of national interest, it is proposed to restore the decision of the late Government respecting the supply of home-killed beef to the Forces?

Mr. N. BUXTON

The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. In regard to the second part of the question. I would refer the right hon. Gentleman to the reply which I gave on Monday last to the hon. and gallant Member for Newbury (Brigadier-General Brown).

Sir A. CHAMBERLAIN

Does not the right hon. Gentleman feel that this good cause would be better advanced by the Government setting an example than by us asking other people to preach what the Government themselves refuse to practice?

Mr. BUXTON

The Government were influenced by the consideration of cost, which I understand was the reason for the consistent refusal of the late Government to do this during their four years of office.

Sir A. CHAMBERLAIN

If the cost is too much for the Government, how do they expect us to press the same course successfully on private individuals?

Mr. GUINNESS

Did not the right hon. Gentleman originally give as his reason for going back on the decision of the previous Government that the increased demand was likely to put up prices; that it was not really a matter of cost to the Government but of prices to ordinary consumers?

Mr. BUXTON

The main reason was the cost which the right hon. Gentleman said was paramount during his term of office.

Brigadier-General BROWN

Is it not a fact that at the recent meeting of the Council of Agriculture Mr. Edwards and his Socialist supporters asked the right hon. Gentleman to appeal to the Government to take on the policy of the late Government, and will he not pay some attention to them?

Mr. GUINNESS

In connection with the matter of price, will the right hon. Gentleman consider whether it is not more to the advantage of this country that the price of home-produced meat should be put up rather than that we should put up the price of Oversea meat, to which this demand is necessarily transferred by a decrease in the consumption of home-produced meat?