§ VISCOUNT ASTORMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the noble Earl, Lord De La Warr, a question of which I have given him private notice. It is to ask the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries whether, since his reply on June 26 with regard to the Report of the Hops Provisional Committee, the Minister of Agriculture has received any communication relative to that Report, and, if so, will he inform the House of its nature.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (EARL DE LA WARR)My Lords, I welcome this opportunity to add to the information which I gave to your Lordships on June 26 with regard to the Report of the Hops Provisional Com- 269 mittee which, as promised, has since been published in full. The noble Viscount, Lord Astor, asked me on that occasion whether there was a dissentient note to the Report and if so whether it would be published with the Report, and I replied that my information was that there was no such dissentient note. I have since verified that that is the case. Since my reply was given to the noble Viscount, however, a letter and statement from the Brewers' Society have been transmitted to the Minister of Agriculture by Sir John Chancellor, the Chairman of the Committee, which, with your Lordships' permission, I will read:
§ "Dear Sir John,
§ I am informed by the brewer members of the Joint Committee that in signing the Report and agreement at the final meeting on the 21 at instant it was arranged that, in deference to your desire not to add a reservation to the Report, you would forward to the Minister with the Report a short statement of certain qualifications which those members desire should be placed on record. These qualifications are attached.
§ Yours very truly,
§ EDGAR SANDERS."
§ The attached note is as follows:
§ "The brewer members of the Committee desire to bring to the attention of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and to place on record the following objections to the Report which they have made throughout the proceedings of the Committee, notwithstanding that they have signed the Report in their desire to assist the Minister in arriving at a working arrangement for the marketing of hops:
- 1, Brewers are opposed to the principle of the limitation, of the production of English hops as provided for in the amendments to the Hops Marketing Scheme, 1932, whereby quotas for individual growers are fixed;
- 2, brewers consider that the difficulties which, the said amendments make for the entry of new producers of hops, confer a practical monopoly on the existing growers which is not in the interests of the hop industry generally; and
- 3, brewers are opposed to the limitation of the import of hops, as they believe that since the imposition of the £4 per cwt. duty, the use of foreign hops has never materially affected the English hop industry.
§ (Intld.) E. S."
§ This letter and statement were communicated to the Hops Marketing Board—the other party to the agreement—and a letter has been received from the Board. With 270 your Lordships' permission I will read this also. I must apologise, to your Lordships for taking up so much time, but I think perhaps it is desirable to get this on record before the debate on Thursday.
§ This is the letter from the Hops Marketing Board:
§ "Sir,
§ We have to thank you for your letter of June 27 and copy of the letter of the Brewers' Society to you of June 23.
§ We were aware that the Brewers' Society wished to record their dislike of the principles underlying the regulation of output, and we must consider this letter as an indication of their desire to have their attitude officially noted.
§ We fear, however, that this letter may be used in a manner prejudicial to the good relations between ourselves and the Brewers' Society. It will be recalled that in the preliminary state of the negotiations an understanding was reached that if a satisfactory agreement could be concluded between the Brewers' Society and the Hops Marketing Board the opposition of the former to the quota amendments now before Parliament would not be pressed.
§ If the opponents of the quota amendments attempt to use this letter as a weapon of attack, it might create the false impression that the Brewers' Society were in some way responsible for this and were therefore not keeping faith. Such an impression would engender suspicion and resentment and make the task of the Joint Committee in working the agreement more difficult.
§ While we think it our duty to call attention to this danger we desire to assure you that we ourselves are convinced that the representatives of the Brewers' Society who have signed the Report and the Agreement intend to live up to their undertaking and to make every effort to work the new arrangements to the mutual interest of all parties concerned, with the same loyalty which we ourselves will bring to this task.
§ Yours faithfully,
§ CECIL M. HIGGINS,
§ (On behalf of the Chairman)."
§ VISCOUNT ASTORThe noble Earl did not give the dates of those letters. I gathered that there are three letters, one from Sir Edgar Sanders, one from Sir John Chancellor—
§ EARL DE LA WARR:The first letter to Sir John Chancellor from Sir Edgar Sanders is dated June 23, and with that is an enclosure of the same date. Then there is a letter of June 29 from the Hops Marketing Board to the Minister of Agriculture.
§ VISCOUNT ASTORWas there any letter from the Chairman of the Provisional Committee to the Minister?
§ EARL DE LA WARRJust a formal note of enclosure.
§ VISCOUNT ASTORWhen was it sent?
§ EARL DE LA WARRIt arrived in the office just a few minutes after the noble Viscount, Lord Astor, had put his question about the same letter in your Lordships' House. How the noble Viscount knew of its existence I leave him to state at a later stage.