§ 44. Major-General Sir Alfred Knoxasked the Secretary of State for India whether he has any further statement to make as to the food shortage in India, its cause and the measures taken to improve the position; to what extent grain is still 1774 being hoarded by middlemen; whether searches were carried out and punishment inflicted in cases detected; and whether prices are controlled and how these corn-pare with the prices in the same months in 1939?
§ Mr. AmeryThe basic facts have not changed. There is no overall shortage of food grains while India has harvested a bumper crop of wheat this spring. There is, however, grave maldistribution for which responsibility is shared by all parties from the cultivator upwards. The plans elaborated by the Food Department of the Government of India earlier in the year have been less successful than was hoped and the Government of India are now considering, in consultation with the Provinces and States, what measures it is best to take, both short term and long. Pending their conclusions it would be inopportune to make any further general statement. As part of the comprehensive measures which are required, severe steps have been taken against middlemen in parts of India and may have to be taken elsewhere. As regards prices, wheat is about 3⅓ and rice in Calcutta something like 9½ times that of September, 1939. This last figure is not applicable to other parts of India, in some of which the prices are very much lower. These prices are not controlled.