§ 75. Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster whether, when fixing prices for food he will consider that any increase in the price of food bears most hardly on poor persons such as old age pensioners, and as these people will lose when their relatives are called up and get less pay as soldiers than in their civil occupation, and, in view of the necessity of maintaining the morale of the civil population, he will take immediate steps to fix prices at a level which will not diminish the purchasing value of the old age pension?
§ Mr. W. S. MorrisonThe object of food control and rationing is to hold the retail price of essential foods at the lowest level consistent with the maintenance of 1215 supplies. This policy is expressly designed to protect the interest of consumers with limited incomes, such as those referred to by the hon. Member.
§ Sir John HaslamWill my right hon. Friend see that when prices are issued to the public, they do not always give a maximum price, as, for instance, at the present time, when they say that butter is 1s. 7d. a pound, and it can be bought at is. 3d. in most shops in the Kingdom?
§ Mr. GallacherIs not the Minister aware that prices are already going up, and will he take steps either to bring down the level of prices to the 10s. a week, or bring the 10s. a week up to the level of prices?
§ Mr. MorrisonThere must be inevitably some rise in prices owing to conditions outside the control of the Government, hut it is the duty of my Department to see that only such rises as are inevitable take place and that there is no profiteering of any kind.
§ Mr. KirkwoodAs the Minister said that it is inevitable that there should be a rise in the price of certain articles, do the Government intend to make any provision to enable old age pensioners to meet that inevitable rise, when they have no other income than 10s. a week?
§ Mr. MorrisonThat is another matter altogether.