§ Mr. BYRNEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food if the Food Controller received a communication addressed to him by the secretary of the Purveyors' and Family Grocers' Association on the 14th of February, requesting a supply of sugar for members who commenced trade between the 1st of January and the 1st of July, 1916, namely, six months prior to the Commission's restrictions curtailing the supply of sugar; if so, what steps have been taken to see that those new traders might receive the usual percentage of the sugar they received in 1916; and if he will explain why those traders who commenced business before the Royal Commission's Orders were issued in July, 1916, are now penalised and left without sugar during the present year?
Captain BATHURSTI am informed that the communication in question was duly received by the Royal Commission on the Sugar Supply. As, however, I have explained in answer to previous questions, the arrangements made by the Commissions do not admit of sugar being allotted to persons who did not begin to trade until after 1915. As the hon. Member is aware, the Food Controller is to-day meeting Members of the House to discuss the whole sugar position.
Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether his attention has been called to the failure of the existing system of controlling supplies of sugar and potatoes to secure their fair share of available supplies to the poorer classes in Glasgow; whether he is aware that the situation is steadily becoming worse; and whether he will either institute a system of rations compulsory on all classes alike by means of sugar and potato tickets or by some other means which will secure an equitable distribution?
Captain BATHURSTI am not aware that, there is any pronounced shortage of sugar in Glasgow. The supplies have been recently increased by an additional allotment to that city in common with other places where the industrial population has increased by reason of the War. As regards potatoes, the prevailing shortage has pressed more severely upon Scotland than upon many other parts of the United Kingdom, but special steps have been taken through the Scottish Office to provide an increased supply.