Farmworkers

HC Deb 13 July 1949 vol 467 cc427-9

51. Mr. Hurd

asked the Minister of Food if he is aware that farmers in Berkshire and Wiltshire, seeking to draw extra seasonal rations in bulk for their workers, can only buy tinned beans on the points allocated as the local grocers' shops have no tinned meat to spare after meeting the needs of their regular customers who are registered with them, and, in view of the fact that the same difficulty arose last year, if he will now allow farm-workers individually to obtain the extra rations to which they are entitled from the shops with which they deal regularly.

Dr. Summerskill

I am not aware that there is any difficulty in obtaining points foods for farmworkers' seasonal allowances. The shortage of canned meat and fish is, however, general. My right hon. Friend cannot agree to allow individual farmworkers to purchase the seasonal allowances.

Mr. Hurd

Does not the Minister recognise that the farmworker has just as heavy a job and is as much entitled to sustaining food as the miner? Will she not see that he gets a square deal in this matter?

Dr. Summerskill

I am sure the hon. Member will remember that this matter has been raised before. I must give the same answer. The food which the farmer wants for his farmworkers consists chiefly of canned meat and canned fish, which are generally in short supply. Canned fish costs dollars.

Mr. York

Is not the right hon. Lady fully conversant with the complaints which were made last year, and is she now prepared to support her hon. Friends who suggest that we should harvest our crops on spaghetti?

Dr. Summerskill

We are trying to meet farmers' needs. In the past we have distributed canned meat and canned fish on alternate months. In August and September this year we shall distribute them both together.

Mr. York

But is the right bon. Lady aware that even if there is an extra allocation, farm workers cannot obtain these points goods because they are taken up by other customers at shops?

Mr. Piratin

Could not the right hon. Lady undertake to release some of the canned fish which we bought from Russia some months ago, and allocate it to the farmworkers?

Mr. Baldwin

In view of these many years in which we have battled for better rations for the farmworker, will the right hon. Lady not reconsider the matter? Is she aware that I have in my hand particulars of an industrial canteen where the people get an 11d. dinner consisting of meat, two veg. and "afters"? Farmworkers cannot get that, and it is about time that the Ministry of Food recognised that they are not being treated fairly.

Mr. Scollan

Is my right hon. Friend aware that harvests in England, Scotland and Ireland have been taken in for hundreds of years by farmworkers who were fed on nothing but potatoes and oatmeal, because they could not get anything more?

Mr. Hurd

In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I wish to give notice that I shall raise the matter again at the earliest opportunity.