HC Deb 19 June 1950 vol 476 cc841-3
17. Mr. Hurd

asked the Minister of Food if he will now inform the House of the reports he has received from the Overseas Food Corporation on the yields of the sunflower and groundnut crops harvested in Tanganyika this season.

Mr. Webb

The Overseas Food Corporation have not yet harvested a large enough acreage to enable them to form a reliable estimate of yields, but they expect to be able to publish a preliminary report within a month.

31. Sir George Harvie Watt

asked the Minister of Food whether, in view of experience and the heavy losses on the East Africa Groundnut Scheme, the Government will reconsider the decision that the Overseas Food Corporation should clear the remaining 500,000 acres still required to reach the target of 600,000 acres by 1954.

Mr. Webb

I shall not be able to deal with this question until I have been able to review the scheme as a whole later in the year, in the light of the assessment which the O.F.C. will be making for me on the basis of this season's experience.

Sir G. Harvie Watt

Will the Minister bear in mind that it would be much better for him to consolidate the present position rather than to expand what is. after all, a very ambitious and speculative proposition?

Mr. G. B. Craddock

Will the Minister stop any further development of this scheme, because it will never be a success? He would do better to spend the money on other developments in East Africa.

Mr. Webb

I think the House would be better advised to await the general discussion on the whole matter.

43. Mr. Hurd

asked the Minister of Food if he is aware that the Overseas Food Corporation is disposing in Dar-es-Salaam of 18,000 bottles of spirits now declared surplus to the requirements of the groundnut scheme; and what measures he is taking to safeguard the welfare of the local Africans by ensuring that these spirits do not fall into the hands of those unaccustomed to strong drink.

Mr. Webb

The disposal of these stocks is a matter for the Overseas Food Corporation, and I am asking them to let the hon. Member know what arrangements they are making.

Mr. Hurd

Surely a large sum of public money must have been involved. Has the Minister not seen the list of stocks to be disposed of—5,000 bottles of gin. 6,000 bottles of brandy, 4,000 of rum, and 105,000 bottles of beer? Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that that is a very large quantity? Is he taking no personal interest in how our money is spent?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

Are not these stocks the last remaining liquid assets of the Corporation?

Mr. Godfrey Nicholson

Is the House to understand that the Minister of Food is not even unofficially informed before such enormous and disproportionate stocks, which can hardly be called trading stocks, are purchased by the Corporation? Surely there is consultation between the Corporation and the Ministry all along on a matter of that sort?

Mr. Webb

Not that degree of consultation on matters of that kind. I am only concerned with the general overriding direction, according to the principles of the Statute. I have arranged for a reply in detail to be sent to the hon. Member, and that is my function.

Mr. Nicholson

If the Minister will look at the Report of the Public Accounts Committee he will see that the Minister is always informed when large contracts are entered into. Is it not likely that this large sum came under that heading?

Forward to