§ Mr. Gallacherasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction of cooperative societies, and others, at the scheme whereby surplus fruit is handed over to women's institutes for jam-making, on the ground that lack of proper facilities will make for waste, and that methods of distribution will be open to evasion and unsatisfactory; and whether he will consider a scheme whereby collecting centres for fruit will be set up, and manufacturers allocated sugar supplies to handle the collections?
Major Lloyd GeorgeI am aware of the difficulties to which my hon. Friend refers, but I am confident that they will be generally overcome and that the scheme 203W will be successful, as it was last year, in saving for human consumption much fruit which would otherwise be wasted. I cannot agree that the method of distribution, which has been worked out in collaboration with representatives of all sections of the trade, will be either unsatisfactory or liable to evasion. In reply to the last part of my hon. Friend's Question, the scheme is designed to prevent the waste of email, scattered surpluses which it would not generally be possible to send to the jam factories. There is, however, nothing to prevent manufacturers from arranging to obtain fruit from the centres, where it can be collected in lots of sufficient size to make this an economic process.