§ 48. Brigadier Raynerasked the Minister of Agriculture whether his attention has been drawn to the extent to which holdings are being advertised for sale with feedingstuffs allocation; and whether he will investigate remedies for this abuse of the allocation system.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture (Mr. George Brown)I am aware that advertisements of holdings for sale sometimes include reference to the ration allocation for pigs and poultry, but I do not know the extent of this practice. I do not regard it as an abuse of the rationing system, nor as a matter in which I could intervene.
§ Brigadier RaynerDoes the hon. Gentleman realise that from time to time this leads to the wealthier pig keepers getting feedingstuffs for their pigs at the expense of men who in 1939 did not keep pigs but who have learnt a lot about pig keeping since?
§ Mr. BrownThe real answer is the introduction of a new scheme to allocate feedingstuffs to pig keepers who did not have a pre-war registration. The more we can widen the scheme the more we can increase feedingstuffs, as we have been doing. I see no other answer to it.