§ Captain BOWYERasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he can state the total quantity of sacks of manufactured flour imported into the United Kingdom during the three months April to June, 1919, and also the quantity imported during the corresponding period of any year from 1910 to the beginning of 1914; whether the milling capacity of the country as a whole is actually in excess of its requirements; and whether the effect of the largely increased importation is that British mills have only maintained employment for their workpeople on such an uneconomical basis as would not have been possible if the mill had not been subsidised by the Government?
§ Sir A. GEDDESThe quantities of wheatmeal and flour (in sacks of 280 lbs. weight) imported into the United Kingdom during the months of April, May, and June in the years 1910 to 1913 and in the current year have been:
1910 … … … … 884,129 1911 … … … … 987,371 1912 … … … … 1,033,294 1913 … … … … 1,184,166 1919 … … … … 2,311,508 I am informed by the Wheat Commission that the milling capacity of the British mills is somewhat in excess of actual requirements, owing to the larger quantity of imported flour shipped and contracted for during the days of the submarine campaign, when it was obviously a reasonable precaution to build up reserves; it having been decided to reduce these stocks the mills are necessarily now grinding less wheat than usual. As the circumstances are, however, of a temporary character, it is not considered wise or equitable to reduce materially the number of workpeople employed in flour mills.