§ Mr. Liddallasked the Minister of Agriculture whether in order to provide against the possibility of a protracted war and to avoid having to act in a hurry and at the last moment, he will now arrange with home-growers to increase the area for the 1940 sugar-beet crop, and so prevent the scarcity and dearness of imported sugar experienced in the last War?
§ Sir R. Dorman-SmithA proposal to increase the sugar-beet acreage as a measure of war preparation raises wide issues that can hardly be dealt with by way of Parliamentary question and answer. I would, however, remind my hon. Friend that in any future war, we should in any event be better off than in the last War, since at that time the home production of sugar was negligible, whereas we now produce at home roughly a quarter of our normal consumption requirements.