§ 1. Mr. Morleyasked the Minister of Food, now that sweets are off the ration, if he will give a bigger allocation of sugar to the housewives in the near future.
§ The Minister of Food (Major Lloyd George)I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Leyton (Mr. Sorensen) on 11th February.
§ Mr. MorleyCan the Minister say if the recent statements in the Press that a new issue of dollars has been allocated to the purchase of tobacco are correct, and if so, would it not have been better to apply dollars to the purchase of sugar? Is not there plenty of sugar to be purchased?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeI do not know how much the dollar figure for tobacco was, but what happened about sweets has no relation to or effect on the domestic sugar ration.
§ Mr. MorleyIs the right hon. and gallant Gentleman aware that housewives are saying the shops are full of sweets; that fresh sweet shops are being opened and that therefore there should be more sugar to spare for domestic consumption?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeIf the hon. Member will look at the Order Paper, he will see that there is a later Question to the opposite effect. I am saying that this amount of sugar, allocated on a once-and-for-all basis, will have no effect whatever on the domestic supply.