§ 28. Mrs. Middletonasked the Minister of Food whether he will arrange for Christmas dried fruit to be allocated on the basis of sugar registrations alone, thus guaranteeing every registered person an equal share in whatever supplies of dried fruit are available.
§ Mr. StracheyNinety per cent. of every allocation of dried fruit already goes to retailers who receive supplies on the basis of their sugar registrations. The remaining 10 per cent. goes to other retailers, who, although not holding sugar registrations, handled dried fruit before the war, and I can see no good reason for withdrawing their supplies.
§ Mrs. MiddletonIs my right hon. Friend aware that I discovered in my constituency last week that some housewives have been able to get as much as 1 lb. or more per ration book, while others have been able to get only a few ounces on their sugar registration, and does he think it is fair to those housewives who receive only the smaller amount? Would it not be very much fairer to make the allocation only on the sugar ration, so that everybody gets a fair amount?
§ Mr. StracheyAs my hon. Friend knows, that would involve taking the remaining 10 per cent. away from those who always dealt in this class of goods before the war, which would cause a great deal of inconvenience to their regular customers.
§ Mr. TurtonWill the Minister make a further investigation in order to see why it is that some agricultural areas get far less dried fruit than other parts of the country, as, for instance the North of England, which gets far less than Scotland?
§ Mr. StracheyI cannot agree that that is the case.