HC Deb 26 February 1947 vol 433 cc2237-48

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—[Mr. Snow.]

12.10 a.m.

Sir Basil Neven-Spence (Orkney and Shetland)

In ordinary circumstances I would keep my remarks to within a very brief compass at such an hour, but the matter which I have to raise is one of such vital and urgent importance to the whole herring fishing industry that I feel I must take a little time over it. In any case, as it is now past midnight, I might as well be hanged for a herring as for a sprat.

Last year the herring fishing season could be considered to be a very satisfactory one, and over one million crans were caught, of which roughly one-fifth reached the consumer in the form of cured herring, that is to say, salted and packed in barrels. That seemed very encouraging to the industry and there was every reason to think that we might look forward to not only a good season but an even better season this year. The herring—the silver darlings, as the fishermen call them—are there swimming in the sea in countless millions. There are dense shoals of them in the waters round our shores. They are there to be had for the catching—an inexhaustible supply of food of the very highest quality, full of proteins and fats, laden with life-giving vitamins, just the kind of food that we cannot possibly have too much of at this particular time. I asked the Minister of Food to be here, but unfortunately he has departed to the other side of the herring pond. I hoped that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food might be here. She is, I hope, engaged in making arrangements by which in future we will be able to fry our herring in oatmeal, for which we will not have had to surrender any points. I should remind her that the herring is one of the most valuable foods we have. One pound of herring gives more energy than one pound of eggs and twice as much energy as one pound of potatoes. These facts cannot be too widely known at the present time.

Surely we would be guilty of a crime against commonsense, not to say a crime against humanity, if we failed to mobilise all our resources to exploit this inexhaustible supply of high quality food, and to reap this harvest by every possible means we can concentrate on it? There were some 650 vessels engaged on herring fishing last year, and it seems not unreasonable to believe that there will be about 100 more this year, taking into account the vessels released by the Admiralty and reconditioned, and the vessels which have been taken over from the Admiralty and converted into fishing boats. I know that there would have been still more vessels if it had not been for the shortage of larch and other timbers for boatbuilding, the shortage of engines—there are boats which have been completed but there are no engines available for them—and the shortage of nets. But putting aside these difficulties, all of which I hope are receiving very close attention by the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Supply at the present time, it seemed to me that the prospects for this season were pretty fair—at least, I thought so until I went north at Christmas. There, in the course of conversations with men engaged in the various branches of the herring industry, I found that the very greatest anxiety prevailed over one very vital matter and that was the supply of barrels required for packing the cured herring. I indicated that one-fifth of last year's catch was cured, that is to say, salted and packed in barrels. For that purpose 300,000 barrels were used. I believe the target this year put before the herring fishing industry is 1,400,000 crans of herring, of which it is hoped to cure 450,000 crans. That amount of herring will require the making of 600,000 barrels —twice the number produced last year. From such information as I have been able to gather there is not, at the present moment, the slightest prospect of these barrels being available for the herring industry next summer. Here is U.N.R.R.A. anxious to buy these herring, and feed the starving multitudes, the Ministry of Food badgering the fishing industry to catch all they can, and the fishermen ready with their boats, nets and gear, ready to reap the harvest from the sea, and the Board of Trade, apparently completely oblivious to the implications of this policy. If that is an example of cooperative planning on the grand scale, then heaven help us all, and particularly the fishermen, who will get the sticky end of this.

I must impress on the Parliamentary Secretary that this is an urgent matter. The greatest uncertainty prevails in the industry. I found that the coopers, who should be making these barrels in winter, were unemployed. These highly skilled men are drifting away to other occupations. I found the curers, who ought to be engaging their staff for curing herring, in a state of great uncertainty and unable to enter into any engagements. The whole industry is full of apprehension that preparations for this season will be brought to nought. It is no use the Parliamentary Secretary talking to me about other ways of handling the catch. I know all about the interesting experiment carried out in Shetland last year by the Herring Industry Board for preserving herring by the method of quick freezing. I know about the other interesting and successful experiments they have carried out there for utilising surplus herring for making animal food oil and fertiliser. All these things have their uses, but at the end of the day one comes against this incontrovertible fact, that pickle curing of herring is still the only practical way of dealing with heavy landings, and for pickle-cured herring there must be barrels, as nothing else has been found satisfactory.

I know that at the end of 1946 the stock of barrels in this country was completely exhausted. On 23rd January, I asked the President of the Board of Trade how many standards of timber were available for making barrels between that date and 31st March. The answer I got was that 200 standards of timber had so far been licensed. The right hon. and learned Gentleman said nothing about the fact that licences had been issued for 500 standards of battens to be made into barrel staves and nothing about the far more significant fact that there was not a single standard of timber available in the country, or likely to be, up to 31st March, for issue against those licences. It is a senseless procedure to lead these people up the garden path by shovelling out licences which are not worth the paper on which they are written, because there is no timber.

I mentioned the target of 600,000 barrels of cured herrings this year. To meet that there must be available 3,000 standards of timber. Towards that there are the 200 standards I have mentioned plus the nebulous promise of another 150 standards sometime, perhaps, from Canada; altogether, putting the most favourable complexion on it, 350 standards, or less than enough for one-sixth of the total quantity of herring which it is hoped to cure next season. There is, therefore, a grim prospect, unless immediate steps are taken to import the balance of timber required to make these 600,000 barrels. It may be that in consequence of the many Questions I put down on this subject, there has been some improvement in the situation. If so I shall be more than pleased to hear of it.

However many standards the Parliamentary Secretary may say are available, I must impress upon him that the total quantity required is 3,000 standards and nothing less will suffice. There are plenty of sources from which this timber can be obtained. The timber which has always been preferred in the industry for making these barrels is Swedish spruce. Scots fir and Scots spruce have also been used. There are other suitable kinds of soft wood from Finland and Canada, and certain soft woods obtainable from Russia and Germany. Surely it is not beyond the power of the President of the Board of Trade to tap some of these sources, if not all of them. I conclude by reminding the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade of the statement reported to have been made by the Minister of Health at Blackpool in 1945. He said: This Island of ours is almost made of coal and is almost surrounded by fish. Only an organising genius could arrange a shortage of both at the same time. The organising genius who presides over the Ministry of Fuel and Power has been most successful in arranging a shortage of coal, and a shortage which will certainly last through the summer and a great deal beyond that. Unless the other organising genius who presides over the Board of Trade gets off the mark very quickly over this matter of timber for making barrels, the Government will have succeeded in achieving the impossible by having produced a shortage of both coal and fish at the same time.

12.22 a.m.

Squadron-Leader Kinghorn (Great Yarmouth)

I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without voicing the sentirnents of the people of Great Yarmouth in the matter of timber for herring barrels. We have had the experience of the last herring season on the East Anglian coast, when we had the experience of not experiencing a glut when there were plenty of herrings for sale. The reason we did not have a glut—which we ought never to have in any case in any season—was that on certain days when fishing should have been at its height the vessels were kept in port. They were kept in port because there was nowhere to put the big catches which would have been caught had the drifters gone out. One way in which we could have dealt with the increased catches would obviously have been to have had a greatly increased number of barrels.

This lack of barrels is obviously due to the wartime dislocation and to the fact that last season was really the first postwar herring season; but we are preparing now for next season, and part of that preparation must obviously include all the ancillary accessories to the herring fleet and its activities. We have got to make sure that the wood and the barrels will be available in good time. That is why I have no hesitation in adding my voice to the sentiments that have been expressed tonight in the hope that the Government arc getting forward with their plans now and are going to see, not that we have all the barrels that we wish to have—one cannot hope for that now—but that plans are in hand to get some of the wood in good time for the season on the East coast of Scotland and the East coast of England.

In addition to that, I presume that some notice has already been taken of the Herring Board's report, issued about three months ago, and that plans are already being made of a long-term nature to see that wood is available for the increased catches that we anticipate. There has been a growth since the war ended of the activities of the Norwegians and the Dutch. They must be using barrels, and I rather believe they have been able to increase their quantities of timber for barrels, and they must have obtained it from the old known sources which provided it in prewar days. Those sources, surely, must be opening up, and if the. Parliamentary Secretary can tell us tonight that there is some forward movement in opening up these old sources, we shall go away very pleased indeed. It is known that negotiations were started last year with our Russian friends, and presumably, as far as those negotiations were concerned, there was the question of imports of timber from the old sources in Russia. We should all be glad that progress in that direction has been made.

12.25 a.m.

Mr. Boothby (Aberdeen and Kincardine, Eastern)

The Parliamentary Secretary knows that this is an old story. We have never had enough timber for barrels for the last three or four years. This is a tragedy, not only for the industry, but because of the present food shortage. I need not tell the House that herrings are not only an extremely nutritious article of food, but they contain much fat, and the shortage of fats is one of the greatest problems, if we are to believe nutritional experts, all over the world. If we had had enough timber for barrels 1pr herrings and salt, a great number of people on the Continent of Europe would not have suffered from malnutrition. What is more, a great many would not have died.

This situation is a by-product of the fuel crisis. If we were in a position to offer coal to those countries of Europe where there is timber, we should be able to get that much-needed timber in exchange. One of the reasons why they cannot give timber is because we cannot give coal. It is only part of the wider problem which we shall be considering in this House the week after next. In so far as it is part of their programme, I think that the Board of Trade is as responsible to the herring industry as to other industries which are suffering from this desperate shortage of timber. The Ministry of Food comes forward with various proposals about the use of herrings. The Herring Board urges fishermen to go out for maximum catches. But I say to the Board of Trade, "You have no right to ask the fishermen to catch this wonderful bounty which circles round our coasts in the summer and autumn unless you are prepared to deal with big landings." The only way to deal with these catches is to have barrels for the herrings, and the salt. I would tonight make an almost desperate appeal to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade to give the manufacturers of herring barrels top priority so far as timber is concerned. This is more important even than housing. It is more important even than any other purpose for which timber is used, and if I complain that the Government have not dealt with this matter rightly, it is because they have not appreciated the vital importance of cured herrings to many countries. In the interests particularly of Western Europe —more than that, in the interests of humanity, we should give this trade a priority which it has not had in the last two years. I hope that the Parliamentary Secretary will give us some assurance.

12.29 a.m.

Mr. J. J. Robertson (Berwick and Haddington)

In the few moments at my disposal, might I urge the tremendous importance of this question? I hope that if it is impossible to secure the necessary importation of timber, an appeal may be made to the home producers to produce the necessary timber to deal with the catches next season. If we do not get the necessary timber, then, of course, we shall find ourselves in that very tragic situation which we have experienced before—that situation in which we have to dump herring back into the sea. This shortage of timber may mean that there will be dumped into the sea valuable catches which, as the hon. Member for East Aberdeen (Mr. Boothby) never fails to remind the House, constitute one of our most valuable food supplies.

There is another angle. To meet the immediate situation I do emphasise that timber is required quickly in order to provide the barrels which are wanted all round the coast. I hope that will not be ignored. At the same time, I would ask hon. Members to remember the new technique for curing herrings. If there is one type of herring which is better than the salted herring, it is the fresh herring. Science has now given us the opportunity to cure herrings in a manner different from that which was customary in the old days. In the past, we used to export something like three quarters of a million tons of herrings every year. That was when the industry was flourishing. I doubt very much whether we will ever be able to do that again. So far as cured herrings are concerned, in the lean years between the wars the European people lost their taste for pickled herrings, and it is doubtful whether we will be able to secure that market again. But Europe is hungry today for fresh herrings, and it is now scientifically possible to produce fresh herrings which can he exported on a long-term policy. The issue at the moment is that we must have timber for next season's catch. I hope, however, that the Government will look at the possibility of having processing plant established at the various herring ports to deal with the herrings in other ways than by pickling them. I do urge on the Government the plea made tonight, that this matter should not be neglected; and that everything possible should be done to provide sufficient timber to meet the needs of the industry before it is too late.

12.32 a.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Belcher)

The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Sir B. Neven-Spence) has raised a matter which is of importance to his constituents and to people in other parts of Scotland and England where herring fishing and curing provide employment. He has Men ably supported by the hon. Member for East Aberdeen (Mr. Boothby) and the hon. Members for Great Yarmouth (Squadron-Leader Kinghorn) and Berwick and Haddington (Mr. Robertson). I realise the importance of the question. It is not only a matter of providing employment in this country, but of providing food where food is needed. There is also an export interest involved. The herrings about which hon. Members on both sides of the House have been talking are, I take it, the pickle-cured and exported herrings I understand that herring supplies for the home market are also indirectly affected. While, therefore. the particular shortage to which attention has been drawn tonight is not mentioned in the Economic Survey for 1947, that is not to say that we have been unmindful of it I am told by my Department that the number of inquiries received on this subject, particularly from the other side of the Border, is most impressive, as is the case always with matters which particularly affect Scotland. Hon. Members who have an expert knowledge of the subject, know that there are innumerable species of timber, each of which has been found by experience to possess qualities which make it most suitable for particular purposes. I will not enter into details, but we know that poplar is most suitable for matchmaking, yellow pine for pattern making, and Swedish white wood for herring barrel making. Some kinds of home-grown timber are also used, but we have raided our supplies of home-grown timber during the war and they are now really exhausted. There may be a little residue but not sufficient.

Experiments have been made with other kinds of timber, but they are been found to be unsuitable went to the Swedish Government we were told that the most made available towards me requirements would be about our normal requirements. Sir possess the kind of export which Sweden requires from us—and as the hon. Gentleman pointed out, that is coal—we were not in a strong bargaining position, but we pressed the case as hard as we could, and although the Swedish Government required most of their own production to pack their own deliveries free of cost to the devastated areas of Europe, we finally succeeded in purchasing about one-third of our requirements of herring barrel staves, of which about one-half are due to arrive the month after next, next April.

Failing to get sufficient timber of the most suitable quality, that is from Sweden, we went to Canada, and Canada has been scoured, I am sorry to say, with very small results. Russia has been approached, but need I say, without success. Finland has always exported staves, and what are known as collapsed barrels, but there is, so I am told, a reluctance—whether wellfounded or not—in our herring and cooperage industries against the use of Finnish wood. Finland supplies Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Holland with substantial quantities of staves and collapsed barrels, manufactured partly from white wood and partly from redwood. She will not supply exclusively white wood, and the curers in this country, who possibly work to a higher standard than those in other countries, will not take the redwood.

Mr. Boothby

They will have to take what they can get.

Mr. Belcher

I am making a plea now, and I hope it will be heeded. I can sympathise with the resentment of people who have been working to high standards, but in the present circumstances, in the interests of our export trade and the consumers in this country, I hope those concerned will see no reflection on their own performances and will be prepared to take whatever we can get for them, whether it be white wood or redwood. It is difficult enough in all conscience to get timber from Finland and other Baltic countries, and if we can succeed in securing some timber which is suitable in some degree for manufacturing these barrels which they require, I hope they will not be too exacting in the standards which they apply.

As we could not meet more than a fraction of the industry's requirements of herring barrel staves in the ordinary way, it was necessary to have alternative supplies. Included in our general softwood imports is a fair quantity of sawn white wood, but very little indeed combines all those qualities needed in staves. Most over, as was explained in a reply a Question asked by the hon. and gallant Member for Orkney and Shetland on 23rd January, this timber is also needed for other essential purposes. Special action has been taken to ensure that all such timber is earmarked for herring barrel coopers, and timber merchants holding stocks have been asked to offer them to the coopers without delay.

I hope that the action we have taken will meet the present situation. We shall do our utmost to obtain supplies of suitable staves this year, but present indications are that this is going to be difficult, and in its own interests the industry will be well advised.

The Question having been proposed after Ten o'Clock and the Debate having continued for half-an-hour, Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Order made upon 13th November.

Adjourned accordingly at Twenty Minutes to One o'Clock.