HC Deb 02 May 1939 vol 346 c1673
20. Mr. Roland Robinson

asked the Secretary for Mines whether he will consider the desirability of a Government scheme whereby the existing waste storage space in the tanks under the petrol pumps in every garage throughout the country could be now utilised as a precaution against petrol shortage in war, other by a form of financial credit to the garages or by a guarantee to the oil companies?

Mr. Lloyd

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given on 17th November last to a similar question by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Cambridge (Lieut.-Commander Tufnell).

Mr. Robinson

Would my hon. Friend bear in mind the real danger from air attack of large-scale oil dumps, and does he not consider it wiser to have the nation's oil storage spread out in small units throughout the whole of the country?

Mr. Lloyd

I appreciate the danger to which my hon. Friend refers, and I assure him that plans have been worked out in detail for the best utilisation of all the available storage in the country, including the type of storage to which he has referred.