§ Mr. Joynson-HicksMr. Speaker, I beg to present a Petition addressed to this House by the owners and users of private motor cars and motor cycles protesting against the abolition of the basic petrol ration and asking for its restoration. This Petition is signed by 800,000 owners and users. Their addresses and occupations, which they have written against their names on the Petition sheet, show that the protest comes from all parts of Great Britain and from citizens of every conceivable kind of occupation. This Petition is a continuation of the Petition of the Standing Joint Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, the Automobile Association and the Royal Scottish Automobile Club. That Petition was presented to this House on 29th October and it had 1,127,000 signatures. The two Petitions combined, therefore, have a grand total of 1,927,000 signatures.
The Prayer which I now present reads as follows:
We therefore humbly pray that, if in the opinion of your honourable House economies in the use of petrol by private motor vehicles are essential to the wellbeing of the country, the provision of the basic petrol ration be restored forthwith, but as a temporary expedient on the basis of a 50 per cent. reduction in the scale of allowances which hitherto existed and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.Petition to lie upon the Table.