§ 71. Mr. Dribergasked the President of the Board of Trade if he is aware of the shortage of cutlery and crockery in factory canteens in the Braintree district; and if he will endeavour specially to make such supplies available to industrial establishments engaged on essential work.
§ Mr. BelcherSupplies of cutlery and crockery are short for everybody, and I should not be justified in arranging for special priority to industrial canteens over other important users. The position should improve, however, as the cutlers get back their labour and more steel, and as the recently increased allocations of coal enable the potteries to raise their output.
§ Mr. DribergIs my hon. Friend aware that out-of-the-way places such as Brain-tree, which are served, or not served, by inefficient and obsolete railway companies like the L.N.E.R., are at a particular disadvantage, because the railway companies sometimes refuse to take consignments of crockery for them; and will he look into that special distributive aspect of the problem?
§ Mr. BelcherIf my hon. Friend will let me have any evidence which he has in his possession, I will look into it.