HC Deb 07 February 1939 vol 343 cc766-7W
Mr. R. Gibson

asked the President of the Board of Trade what explanation he can give for the fact that only 464,000 hundredweights of molasses and invert sugar were landed at Greenock during the year 1936 as against 1,114,000 hundredweights in 1935 and 991,000 in 1937?

Mr. Stanley

I understand that in 1936 the use in distilling of high test molasses, i.e., molasses which contains a high proportion of sweetening matter and is therefore not required in such large quantities as ordinary molasses, was introduced at Greenock and that in 1937 the manufacture of power alcohol was commenced at a distillery near Greenock. These changes probably contributed respectively to a decline in the quantity of molasses imported at Greenock in 1936 as compared with 1935 and to an increase in the quantity imported there in 1937.