§ 58. Sir Reginald Clarryasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food what steps his Department are taking to ensure that men and women trained and of good physique are allowed to be retained by the wholesale food firms 774 in South Wales and Monmouthshire; whether this is taken into consideration when staffs are drafted from this trade to munitions and new staffs sent; whether these areas are included in the arrangements between the Ministry of Labour and his Department for the wholesale food trade; and whether he will consider a scheme on lines like the sweet manufacturing and other trades, in view of the overstrain felt by the food trade resultin in a number of physical breakdowns to the workpeople employed?
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food (Mr. Mabane)The answer to the first part of the Question is that the present procedure for considering what staff, if any, shall be withdrawn from firms in the wholesale food trade provides for essential workers to be retained unless alternative arrangements for distribution are possible. Such alternative arrangements may include the provision of suitable substitutes. In all these matters the local officers of the Ministry of Labour and of my Department are working in close liaison in all parts of the country, including South Wales and Monmouthshire. The answer to the second and third parts of the Question is in the affirmative and the answer to the fourth part af the Question is in the negative.