BREAD RATIONING (PETITIONS) (Hansard, 16 July 1946)

§ Mr. Norman Bower
I beg to ask leave to present to the House a Petition, signed by 300,000 people in all parts of the country, which states that the petitioners are already undernourished—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Wherefore they humbly request that bread rationing and further cuts in foodstuffs be not proceeded with and that a public inquiry into the country's food situation be instituted. It concludes: Your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

§ Mr. Skeffington-Lodge
May I take it that none of the petitioners claims to have been a prisoner at Belsen concentration camp?

§ Sir Waldron Smithers
I beg to present a humble Petition of the undersigned residents in the Parish of Chelsfield and its vicinity, in the County of Kent, which sheweth that they view with alarm the announced intention of His Majesty's Government to ration the supplies of bread to domestic and other consumers thereby causing a hardship to the nation's housewives which they have never had to suffer during the most evil days of the war. Wherefore, your petitioners pray that the decision of His Majesty's Government be altered in conformity with the wish of the people and no such burden be added to the hardships already borne by the people of this land. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

§ Mr. Gallacher
On a point of Order, Mr. Speaker. I wish to ask whether it is within the Rules of Order to move that a Petition be not accepted, in view of the fact that this is sheer Tory propaganda?

§ Mr. Speaker
It is within the Rules of this House that any hon. Member can present a Petition on any subject.