HC Deb 06 July 1938 vol 338 cc395-6
Mr. De la Bère

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the improvement of mills in rural areas and for the increase in the output thereof and to amend the Wheat Act, 1932. This Bill is a very simple and short proposition. It merely proposes slight modifications of the machinery already in existence under the Wheat Act, 1932. It proposes that henceforward the Minister of Agriculture should have power to lay down that a certain proportion of homegrown millable wheat should, in every cereal year, be milled in what I define as "rural mills." The Bill then lays down that it would be for the Wheat Commission and the Millers' Corporation, which are already in existence under that Act, to work out a scheme whereby the prescribed proportion of wheat would be assured and distributed to the rural mills. I suggest that there is a procedure which can be worked out without any great difficulty, and one that can be brought into operation gradually and with due consideration for all the interests concerned. It need not involve the Government in any additional expenditure.

The House will appreciate that for many years now there has been a diminution in the number of mills in rural areas working to produce flour from wheat. The reasons for that diminution are many and various. Much de-offalised wheat is now imported into this country, having been milled abroad, and much wheat which is imported is treated by mills at the various ports of importation. Much of the home-grown wheat is also sent to the mills at the ports to enable it to be de-offalised there, and no employment is given in the rural areas. Apart from that, there is much de-offalised wheat introduced which is of no value from the point of view of offals for the producers and the agriculturists in this country.

While I am on that subject I would like to call attention to the plight of the poultry keepers, who have suffered as a result of the high price of offals because of the importation of this de-offalised wheat. Many thousands of these poultry keepers have been compelled to close down and their plight is indeed parlous. I do not want to state an exact date, but I think it was in June, 1937, that a scheme was put forward by the milling combine offering to pay 2s. a cwt. on offals into a central fund, or 4os. a ton. All seemed to be well and the combine seemed to be really doing something which was great. Unfortunately before we could get the scheme into operation it transpired that the combine wanted a quid pro quo in exchange; they wanted, I am informed, to raise the price of wheat and bread to the people of this country. In view of the fact that so many of the mills to-day are owned by the milling combines, who have bought them and have no intention of re-opening them, I feel that something should be done to assist and increase the number of mills in order to provide offals for the poultry keepers and the farmers of the country. It may be that nothing I can say or do in this House will make the Government realise the importance of the poultry keepers and the farmers, but I believe in the Faithful Commons; I believe they have a heart; and it is for that reason that I ask leave to bring in this Bill.

Question, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the improvement of mills in rural areas and for the increase in the output thereof and to amend the Wheat Act, 1932, put, and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. De la Bère, Mr. Liddall, Sir Francis Fremantle, Mr. H. G. Williams, Mr. Loftus, Mr. Ross Taylor, Mr. Haslam, and Mr. Macquisten.