HC Deb 06 June 1951 vol 488 cc1060-2

Motion made and Question proposed, "That the Clause stand part of the Bill."

Mr. Colegate

I want to ask a question about the effect of Clause 10, which refers to British spirits which may be bottled in warehouse. I am not certain of the meaning of the expression "wine or British spirits into bottles" in line 25. Does that mean foreign imported wines, or British wines, or both? The question is of some importance. Port is protected already and it is mentioned in this Clause. Only wine which has crossed the bar of the Douro River can legally be called port. In international conferences we are constantly defending our trade marks. Are we going to allow wine to be sold in this country to include hocks and burgundies when they are not really hocks and burgundies as understood? Would the Attorney-General say a word on that?

Mr. Nicholson

As one interested in this trade, I should be grateful for an explanation of this Clause from the Attorney-General.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Douglas Jay)

I am glad to see we are making such rapid progress, Sir Charles. This Clause is intended simply to allow the bottling of wine in warehouses for home consumption as well as for export. It has hitherto been the law that it is lawful in a warehouse to sort, separate, pack and repack any goods, and to make such alteration therein as may be necessary for the preservation, sale, shipment or disposal thereof.

There has been an exception, however, in the case of wine, which may be bottled in bond for exportation but not for home consumption. It has been a longstanding complaint of the trade that that should be so because it has, of course, involved the trade in locking up a certain amount of capital for a long period, while the wine was in bond. The reason we have hesitated to grant this concession before was simply that permission for wine to be bottled in bond for home consumption involves an extra use of administrative manpower by the Customs, and we have not hitherto thought we would be justified in providing for that. However, by this year, the manpower resources of the Customs being a little greater than they were in the post-war period, it seemed to us that it was justified.

Mr. Nicholson

Do I understand from what the hon. Gentleman has said that this extends the concession in regard to British port to all table and other wines?

Mr. Jay

Yes, precisely.

Mr. Nicholson

Then I should like to thank the Government, on behalf of the trade. It will be a help to the wine trade, which has suffered rather severely from the rise in duty and prices. Many wine merchants are comparatively small firms and old family firms and they have felt heavily the burden involved in locking up a great deal of capital in wine.

Mr. Colegate

The Financial Secretary was not here when I made my point and his reply did not quite answer it. Has the hon. Gentleman had any conversations with the French Government, who are extremely sensitive about the naming of wines? Under what label should an importer of claret who bottles it here now sell the wine? Under the Madrid and other conventions we are restricted, and I am wondering whether the Financial Secretary had that in mind.

Mr. Jay

British wine.

Mr. Julian Amery (Preston, North)

It has occurred to me that what is suggested in the Finance Bill at this point will be welcomed as evidence of a great change of heart on the part of the party opposite. Here is this commodity—port—obviously associated with privilege, which the Government are now undertaking to make available to the public in a more privileged way than before. There are few people left in the country who can afford to be two-bottle men, of which there were so many in the past. There are very few on this side of the Committee and, I suspect, not very many even on the side of the party in power. Never- theless, we should not let this Clause pass without extending a word of congratulation to the Government on the steps they are taking to encourage the drinking of a beverage which has contributed to making the British people what they are.

Question put, and agreed to.

Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.